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Once a thriving industrial city of nearly a quarter million people, with most residents’ employment tied in some way to automobile manufacturing, Flint, Michigan’s population has dwindled to less than 100,000 in the aftermath of auto plant closures during the 1980s. The city has demolished over 5,000 abandoned houses in the last decade. Today, not one grocery store exists within the city.
In 2016, Magnum photographer Matt Black took intimate portraits at the homes of some of the residents of Flint. Black’s photo essay captures an eerily empty town with an abandoned feel. It came as no surprise when Flint native Deborah Hayman, told Black, “You know what my biggest fear is? That people are going to forget about us.”
