Alvin’s Delicatessen, Detroit 1984

The Peripheral Vision Portfolio are works connected to the “Peripheral Vision” blog from Bill Schwab, where he shares stories of selected alternate photographs from his archives of never before-made-available prints. All come as high-quality pigment prints signed by the artist.

Title: Alvin’s Delicatessen, Detroit 1984

“Another old gem recently rediscovered. Made at the long-gone Alvin’s in Detroit’s Wayne State University neighborhood, it captures that feel of the old Detroit that has all but disappeared. It’s January 3rd of 1984, and I’m back in Detroit after 4 years living in a small, mid-Michigan college town. Still coming down from a summer of study and fun in Scotland and Wales, I’m finding it hard to be the landscape photographer I thought I was. I’ve now taken a job in my minor field of study, graphic design, keylining on Detroit’s alternative newspaper, The Metro Times. Still dreaming of making it in photography, but losing my allegiance to Ansel Adams and others of his genre, I carry my camera everywhere trying to find, develop, and nurture a “style” of my own. This photograph is from that period when, unknown to me at the time, I already had a style. It was right there all the time, showing up in between my attempts at being someone else.”

Edition: Peripheral Vision – open
– Pigment Print
– 7 x 5-inch image size
– 8.5 x 11 Hahnemühle Baryta
– Signed, titled, and dated by the artist on reverse
– Unmounted