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Couple at Metropolitan Beach, Detroit, 1968
Two young men on Woodward Avenue, Detroit, 1968
Boys on a canal bank, Detroit, 1968
Neighborhood children, Detroit, 1968
Spectators at a public demonstration, Detroit, 1968
Warehouse foreman, Detroit, 1968
Jerome Cavanaugh, mayor of Detroit from 1962-1979, Detroit, 1968
Community organizer, Detroit, 1968
Woman at a beauty salon, Detroit, 1968
Businessmen at a squash match, Detroit, 1968
Woman at a gym, Detroit, 1968
Hair stylist smoking, Detroit, 1968
Boy in a backyard, Detroit, 1968
Husband and wife at home with their youngest child, Detroit, 1968
Office workers, Detroit, 1968
Young girls at Metropolitan Beach, Detroit, 1968
Students at school, Detroit, 1968
Young men at a debutante ball, Detroit, 1968
Ana Kuzick at home in high chair, Detroit, 1968
Businessman at a press party, Detroit, 1968
Margaret Carpenter at home, Detroit, 1968
Waitress in an empty restaurant, Detroit, 1968
William Day, president of Michigan Bell Telephone Company, Detroit, 1968
Bolt and nut sorters, Detroit, 1968
Executive secretary, Detroit, 1968
High school basketball, Detroit, 1968
Opening of an art exhibition, Detroit, 1968
Formal cocktail party, Detroit, 1968
Go-Go dancer, Detroit, 1968
Programmer with computer, Detroit, 1968
Woman in her kitchen with rollers in her hair, Detroit, 1968
Linotype operator, Detroit, 1968
Women's gymnastics class, Detroit, 1968
Warehouse worker, Detroit, 1968
Trucking company executive, Detroit, 1968
Frank Ditto, community organizer, Detroit, 1968
Couple picnicking, Detroit, 1968
Secretary smoking at her desk, Detroit, 1968
Sales meeting in an auditorium, Detroit, 1968
Beauty salon client with a new haircut, Detroit, 1968
Elevator operator, Detroit, 1968
Men under hairdryers, Detroit, 1968
Shoe repair shop owner, Detroit, 1968
Women waiting at a bus stop in the rain, Detroit, 1968
Women's Convention, Detroit, 1968
Husband and wife at home with their youngest child, Detroit, 1968
Shriner's Convention, Detroit, 1968
Ford Motor Company press conference, Detroit, 1968
Office workers, Detroit, 1968
Detroit tigers fan, Detroit, 1968
Teenagers on the street in downtown Detroit, Detroit, 1968
Neighborhood children, Detroit, 1968
Pedestrians at the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Conners, Detroit, 1968
High school prom, Detroit, 1968
Man with injured knee at the beach smoking, Detroit, 1968
Intermission at the theater, Detroit, 1968
Beauty salon client smoking, Detroit, 1968
Secretary with abstract painting, Detroit, 1968
Computer room, Detroit, 1968
Students at a Jesuit high school, Detroit, 1968
Detroit Bolt and Nut Company workers, Detroit, 1968
Young boy on the north side of Detroit, Detroit, 1968
Ann Davis at home with her daughter and son, Detroit, 1968
Couple at home with their daughter, Detroit, 1968
Gala hostess, Detroit, 1968
Woman outside a tire factory waiting for the bus, Detroit, 1968
Pool player in an east side poolroom, Detroit, 1968
Spectators at an Armed Forces Day parade, Detroit, 1968
Typesetter at work, Detroit, 1968
East side Detroit family, Detroit, 1968
Jim and Judy Yardley with their dogs, Sport and Barney, Detroit, 1968
Dressed up for Sunday Morning, Detroit, 1968
High school student in mini dress, Detroit, 1968
Couple outside of an art museum, Detroit, 1968
Woman at an art exhibition in Grosse Pointe, Detroit, 1968
Gilbert and Lila Silverman with their children, Paul and Eric, Detroit, 1968
Dean Turner with his parents and cat, Detroit, 1968
Boy playing basketball, Detroit, 1968
Newlywed couple, Detroit, 1968
Father and child at the Detroit Auto Show, Detroit, 1968
Executive lunchroom, Detroit, 1968
Office workers in downtown Detroit, Detroit, 1968
The Ambassador Bridge, spanning the Detroit River, Detroit, 1968
Young woman in a hat on a city street, Detroit, 1968
Protester at an anti-war rally, Detroit, 1968
Newsmen at a public demonstration, Detroit, 1968
Enrico Natali's son, Vincenzo Natali, on the day of his birth, Detroit, 1968
Secretary smoking at her desk, Detroit, 1968
Henry Ford II, Detroit, 1968
Young woman dressed for an evening out, Detroit, 1968
Suburban girls shopping in downtown Detroit, Detroit, 1968
Robert Surdam, president of the National Bank of Detroit, Detroit, 1968
After school, Detroit, 1968

Press Release

Exhibition dates: 2 November - 21 December, 2013 b>Opening reception with the artist: 2 November, 2013 6-8pm

As the fall of Detroit began, as her middle class American Dreamers began moving to greener pastures, and while the Motor City’s status as one of the shining stars of the industrial revolution began to fade, Detroit became a locus for the racial conflict and political upheaval that swept the country during the late 1960s. Throughout this pivotal moment, Enrico Natali was present, empathically documenting Detroit, her people and their environments, and their lives and conditions in his compelling photographs.

Forty-one years later, Natali’s photographs of Detroit still resonate with hope and emotion, and indeed, have taken on an added pathos. These pictures capture the relative calm before the storm: people attending art exhibitions, sporting events, a high school prom; families posing together for portraits; secretaries smoking their afternoon cigarettes; children, parents and grandparents, workers of every stripe—machinists, waitresses, beauticians—plying their trades with what might be described in retrospect as innocence. The spirits of these nameless faces, young and old, are the ghosts that haunt what is now—very literally—this bankrupt metropolis.

Enrico Natali was born in 1933, in Utica, New York. During the 1960s he lived and photographed in various American cities, including New York, New Orleans, Chicago, and Detroit. At the end of that decade he ceased work as a photographer and began a meditation practice that became his primary focus, as he built a home and raised his family in California’s Los Padres National Forest. In 1990 Natali and his wife Nadia founded the Blue Heron Center for Integral Studies, a Zen meditation center in Ojai, California.

In 1971 Natali was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. His photographs are held within numerous public collections including: the George Eastman House, Center for Creative Photography, Art Institute of Chicago, Rhode Island School of Design, Detroit Institute of Arts, among others.

A handsome, timely and poignant publication, Detroit 1968, published by Foggy Notion Books, including an essay by Mark Binelli, author of the critically acclaimed Detroit City is the Place to Be (2012, Metropolitan Books), accompanies the exhibition.

For high resolution images and additional information please contact info@josephbellows.com