Inside the ruins of Detroit

As Detroit navigates its way through the nation’s largest municipal bankruptcy, visitors have been descending on the city to view up close the biggest symbol of the Motor City’s decline: Its empty buildings.

“Ruin porn,” as the locals call it, has become a major attraction in Detroit for tourists and professional photographers who see beauty in the city’s decay.

While some explore the abandoned structures on their own, local photographer Jesse Welter organizes tours of the most famous spots in the city. On a recent Saturday, he led a tour of three abandoned structures: Lee Plaza, a former luxury hotel and apartment building that has been closed since the 1990s; an empty fire station and an old courthouse and police station in Highland Park, just outside Detroit.

(Photographs by Holly Bailey/Yahoo News)

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