Dave Jordano

Early in 1972, while as a twenty-four year old student studying photography at the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit, I began working with a 35mm camera where for approximately a year I photographed in and around the Detroit area. Some of these pictures I printed for school assignments, but for the most part I compiled a negative book where I then stored them away and quickly forgot about them, never even bothering to make contact sheets. I shuttled the books around for years, throwing them into a cabinet every time I moved, only to have them sit again for another decade or two. It wasn’t until 2013, after over forty years of them sitting dormant that I rediscovered them.

What I found were many never before printed images that contradicted the novice, immature nature of an early budding photographers vision. What they did reveal was a body of work, crafted out of an acute observational skill set that eloquently traced the wanderings of a young man who was absorbed, within the pace and life of his daily surroundings. To have to reacquaint myself with this work is somewhat of a puzzling affair. I know I’m the author of the work and I take full credit for it, but in many ways, because of the distance in time from when these pictures were taken, and their recent discovery, it can almost feel as if someone else had tripped the shutter, and not me. I’m proud to present them here today.

davejordano.com