Without trouble from the locals, arrests or harassment by the cops, car troubles or lost luggage, we have arrived home safely from our "Rust Belt" trip.

To say the least, it was incredible! 14 locations in 7 days with 5 or 6 photographers and all our bags, crammed in a minivan, we traveled from Chicago to Gary to Detroit and back.

Every location we visited was amazing in it's own right. Most incredible were the Palace Theatre in Gary & the church in Detroit.

The church was one of the most incredible locations I have ever seen. When I walked into the space, I was breathless for a moment. It was built in 1911, closed in the 90's and has stayed fairly pristine. It houses a beautiful organ and Cross mosaics on the walls. The pews are intricately detailed and "curvy" to fit the shape of the balcony. The craftsmanship and architecture of the building was incredible.

The Palace Theatre was gorgeous and in itself, the epitomy of decay. The seats had "melted" [as we described] into the floor and only a few rows remained standing. The weather in Gary, Indiana has taken an incredible toll on this building, but that type of decay to me is beautiful, especially since it lacked graffiti and evidence of scrapping. High over the stage, old lights and batons of tattered old backdrops still hung. The counterweight system was in knots and rusted, but still beautiful. In many of the apartments upstairs on the front of the building, murphy bed frames lay rusted and broken. A few units even had pictures still hanging on the wall.

The only location that fell short of my expectations was a location I wasn't expecting to wind up disappointed over. I had seen photos of Michigan Central and knew how trashed the location was, but upon walking into the building, I experienced a very discouraging feeling, creatively speaking. I just wasn't inspired. The decay was extensive, as was the graffiti. While the lighting was incredible, the only parts of the building I enjoyed photographing were the main lobby, the exteroir and the views of the city out the windows.

We ran into a few groups of people there; some photographers, some scrappers & taggers, who spent a large amount of time throwing bricks out the upper floors onto the building's lower roofs. The cops pulled up on the location at one point during the evening and some idiot got busted. We snuck out without any issues.

I have 1,500 photos to sort through and I've started posting on flickr [www.flickr.com/photos/aheiden], but I know it will be a long process. I hope you'll follow the work as it's posted and give me feedback.