Highland Park Police Headquarters, 2011

Philip Jarmain grew up near London, Ontario, with part of his childhood spent in Switzerland and Ireland. There were also many family trips to Mexico. His mother is a textile artist and fathers an entrepreneur. A childhood love of storytelling led to early fascination with film, photography and cameras. dShort dramas shot with an 8 mm wind-up camera were a passion. Later, his training was in film (Vancouver Film School), and for some years he worked in lighting for feature films and episodic television, and after that as stills photographer for film.

While establishing himself as a full time artist in photography, Jarmain supports himself as a commercial photographer specializing in conceptual advertising, based in Vancouver, where he lives, and Toronto. In this area he is a recipient of multiple Lürzers Archive and Communication Arts awards as well as other international honors.

The Highland Park Police Headquarters was built in 1917 following the dramatic increase in Highland Park’s population after Henry Ford opened an automobile assembly plant there – the first to have a moving assembly line. Highland Park was incorporated as a city in 1918. For over 80 years, the police headquarters building served the once wealthy enclave of Highland Park. In the later decades of the 20th century, the city experienced many of the same problems as surrounding Detroit – fewer people and more crime. It was known as the City of Trees until the 1970s when Dutch elm disease killed many old trees. After mounting financial crises, the city was taken over by the State in 2001. The Highland Park police department was dissolved, policing duties taken over by the Wayne County Sheriff’s department. In 2007, the former Highland Park Police Headquarters was closed when the re-formed police department moved to a new location. Looters ransacked the closed police headquarters until the ruin that was the Highland Park Police Headquarters was demolished in 2012. A new fire station has been built in its place.