Rack & Ruin is a collection of images documenting pool culture across Detroit, Michigan, captured between 2022 and 2025. It showcases the people and establishments that make up a tight-knit, diverse community. Shot on both film and digital, primarily in medium format, some of the images are sharp, other hazy or just behind the break. That mix felt right. Unpolished and a little loose, this collection is meant to feel lived in, like the spaces it came from.
The phrase “rack & ruin” suggests decay or collapse. That rise, fall, and rise-again narrative of Detroit has been worn thin, especially for those who’ve called it home. Here, the title leans more into the cycle itself — the defeat, the reset, the return to the table a little wiser and more determined. Or maybe it’s the rand and ruin of memory this collection is meant to preserve.
These images are fragments, glimpses of a community that’s awake and thriving somewhere in the city at any given hour. There’s no single story here. Just what I saw, what stuck, and what felt worth keeping.
Donald Frith is a photographer, Director, and Editor based in Detroit and available for collaboration everywhere.
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