Revealed: “My Detroit” postcard winners for the 2016 U.S. Venice Biennale exhibit

By Justine Testado|

Thursday, Feb 25, 2016

Sara Jane Boyers, Santa Monica, CA. North from Gunnar Birkerts' 1300 Lafayette East Cooperative, 2015.

The 2016 U.S. Venice Biennale Pavilion is one step closer to becoming a reality with today's reveal of the "My Detroit" postcard photo competition winners. Over at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit (MOCAD), U.S. Pavilion co-curators Cynthia Davidson and Monica Ponce de Leon announced the 18 winners during a lecture about the exhibition. Titled "The Architectural Imagination", the 2016 exhibition will present 12 speculative architectural projects commissioned for specific sites in Detroit. Last summer, the U.S. Department of State selected the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning to organize the exhibition.

Davidson and renowned Detroit photographer and sociologist Camilo José Vergara reviewed the 463 submissions that came in for the contest. In selecting the winners, they picked the photos that were considered as unique individual depictions of Detroit that could also collectively tell a larger story about the present-day city. The photographs will then be printed as postcards and distributed to visitors when the Biennale opens in May. Winners received a $100 cash prize for each winning photo.

Check out the photos below.

Derek Chang, New York, NY. Belle Isle Aquarium, 2013.

'The twenty photographs to be printed as postcards will help us tell the exhibition visitor short stories about life in Detroit,' Davidson said in a statement. 'These views of the city will complement the work of the architects at the U.S. Pavilion in Venice.'

The Architectural Imagination “My Detroit” Photo Contest Winners: