Esteban Chavez joins 1xRUN for his debut release Detroit’s Top Ten, featuring 10 oversized photolithography editions highlighting downtown Detroit’s architectural gems. The early 1900’s in Detroit was a time of unparalleled prosperity, with iconic buildings created that still stand to this day contributing to Detroit’s signature skyline. Individually hand-printed Chavez has created massive oversized photolithography editions including Detroit’s Fisher Building, Guardian Building, Penobscot Building, One Detroit Center, One Woodward Avenue, David Stott, Book Building, Renaissance Center, Book Cadillac Hotel and Michigan Central Depot. Read on for more behind Esteban Chavez’s famous buildings and be sure to snag your favorite from Detroit’s Top Ten…
David Stott / Michigan Central Depot
“Why does Detroit have such a grand stock of high-rise landmark buildings, which this exhibit so vividly reminds us? For starters, Detroit was the fourth largest city in the country during its heyday. In 1930 the city was six times as big as it was in 1900, with a million and a half residents. This kind of explosive growth, accompanied by the creation and accumulation of immense wealth, has rarely been equaled in the history of this country, or any country.
One Woodward Avenue / Guardian Building
Eager and able to demonstrate and enjoy its economic and cosmopolitan might, it resorted to architecture, the medium that has always validated power and cultural prestige. Extraordinary buildings were commissioned and built in this remarkable burst of energy and bravado.
Renaissance Center / Book Cadillac Hotel
And it couldn’t have happened at a better time architecturally: a monumental style was alive and well, plus the requisite mix of wealthy clients, talented architects, and skilled craftsmen,” Chavez writes in his artist statement discussing the series.
One Detroit Center / Fisher Building
For each Chavez photographs buildings or architectural details, scans the negatives into the computer and generates the images into film positives. Each of the film positives are the actual size of the lithographs. The films are then exposed to photographic lithographic plates before the plates are then inked up by hand rolling ink onto them.
Penobscot Building / Book Building
Paper is placed on the inked plate and rolled through a traditional hand cranked press. The result are these fine art lithographs of some of Detroit’s most famous landmarks utilizing Esteban’s internationally recognized style of photo imagery.
-1xRUN