Alesia Zettlemoyer

Photographer Alesia Zettlemoyer has been cruising the streets of Detroit for over 25 years. She grew up on Lafayette Street in Southwest Detroit with many of her relatives and lifelong friends. She loves the Southwest Detroit community very much.Her photojournalistic style of shooting captures the passion and pathos of her subjects. Alesia attended College for Creative Studies in Detroit. Her photographs have been features on PBS and exhibited in many galleries in the Detroit Metropolitan area. 

Faces of Southwest

A lively mosaic. That can be the only phrase to adequately describe the vibrant community of Southwest Detroit. It is a microcosm of the America to come- with a multitude of faces, customs and traditions transplanted from foreign lands to form a unified collective of familiarity. The people possess a profound dignity even in the face of extreme poverty. They are a testament to the foundations that have shaped their lives- family, faith and the strength of the community. 

Pershing Street Mural

When you enter Southwest Detroit from any direction you are instantly reminded that you are no longer in the suburbs anymore. The community is a vital canvas adorned with colorful murals, hand painted signs, and graffiti tags. Often the artists are anonymous, others, veterans of the Detroit art scene and those who write language only understood by fringe underground element. The x-factor they share in common is a unique sense of storytelling that anyone, regardless of education or nationality, can easily decipher. The art of Southwest Detroit is a collective story of a diverse people who live, work, love and die in a foreign land they now call home. 

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