Detroit: a city in decline - in pictures

Graffiti covers an abandoned building in Detroit Photograph: JD Pooley/Getty Images

Downtown Detroit looking south along Woodward Avenue including several buildings recently purchased by the Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert Photograph: Rebecca Cook/Reuters

The General Motors headquarters is seen behind an abandoned house Photograph: JD Pooley/Getty Images

A person walks past the remains of the Packard Motor Car Company, which ceased production in the late 1950's
Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The moon and the planet Jupiter hover over a burned out house on Wagner Street
Photograph: Mark Bialek/Corbis

Vacant and rundown brick homes in an eastside neighbourhood Photograph: Rebecca Cook/Reuters

The Detroit People Mover carries passengers above a street Photograph: JD Pooley/Getty Images

From 2000 to 2010, Detroit's population declined by a quarter of a million Photograph: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

Vacant and rundown homes, designated for demolition, near downtown Detroit Photograph: Rebecca Cook/Reuters

Shuttered and repossessed homes line the streets of a middle class area of Detroit Photograph: Charles Ommanney/Getty Images

An abandoned hospital Photograph: JD Pooley/Getty Images

A banner on a building in downtown Detroit calls for outsourcing to the city Photograph: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

A pedestrian walks past graffiti in downtown Detroit Photograph: Carlos Osorio/AP

A tyre sits on a drain to replace the grill, which was stolen for scrap, in front of a well-kept home and a derelict home on the eastside of Detroit Photograph: Rebecca Cook/Reuters/Corbis

Artists paint the walls of Imagination Station, a house across from Detroit's abandoned train station Photograph: Melissa Farlow/National Geographic Society/Corbis

The abandoned Michigan Central train station Photograph: Paul Souders/Corbis

The broken windows of an abandoned factory Photograph: Rex Features

A vacant home, covered with red spray paint, in an eastside neighbourhood Photograph: Rebecca Cook/Reuters