Cyrus Tetteh had just sat down at his work desk when he saw the social media post that would lead to him photographing Kash Doll in 2019.
Rap Radar podcast host Elliott Wilson needed a photographer in Detroit that day. He didn’t say why, but several people kept tagging Tetteh, saying “Book Cy, book Cy!” and he was up for the task, he recalls. When he DM’d Wilson his portfolio, including photos of rapper Big Sean receiving a key to the city, it was a done deal. Then he found out the shoot was with Kash Doll for Rap Radar, took a half day at work, and headed to Dexter, the neighborhood where the rapper grew up.
“We started off chillin’ in her neighborhood, then ended the day at her mansion in Grosse Pointe, and it was just a wild ride of the day,” he remembers. “Elliot and his crew wanted some Detroit food so Kash Doll recommended corned beef eggrolls and we pulled up to Asian Corned Beef, too.”
Tetteh’s shots of Kash Doll, and a screenshot of the X post that landed him the job, appear in his Only in Detroit photo book, which he released at the end of October. The book is his way of celebrating the side of Detroit, where he was born and raised, that he says is not often shown in mainstream media.
“I never heard positive things about the city in the media, like people always talk so bad about us,” he says. “They always talk about the poverty and the violence. People fly here to take pictures of torn down buildings and ruin porn and it's just like, wow, this is not the city that I live in. Even as a kid I had a lot of fun and was surrounded by a lot of love in Detroit, and I always knew that if anybody was to come and change that look, it would have to be somebody from here.”
Tetteh has been a photographer with the City of Detroit since 2017 with the launch of theneighborhoods.org, a website intended to host Detroit stories told by the city’s new (at the time) Chief Storyteller. Detroit's previous Chief Storyteller Eric Thomas left the role in May, and it appears the position has not been filled since. Tetteh, however, continues to work with the city’s media department and has shot Aretha Franklin’s funeral, President Joe Biden’s 2022 Detroit visit, the Thanksgiving Parade, and a discreet moment of the Warriors’ Draymond Green playing chess at Campus Martius, which all appear in his book.
Besides living in Detroit most of his life, Tetteh’s job alongside the city’s first Chief Storyteller Aaron Foley gave him a front-row seat to Detroit’s untold stories.
“Our job was to tell the stories of people in the neighborhoods of citizens that you normally wouldn’t hear on the main local news stations or in the newspapers,” he says. “Throughout my time with the city, I’ve realized that I’ve been able to experience the city's growth and all of the city’s celebrations of the past five years with this privilege. I knew these moments were special and I want people to experience the Detroit that I’m experiencing.”
Only in Detroit includes shots of Baby Tron, Jhené Aiko performing at Mopop Festival, Motown Legend Mary Wilson, and Police Chaplain Cedric Wyckoff donning a pair of Cartier Buffs while being honored for saving a man’s life on the Detroit Princess.
“It’s just an authentic moment that you would only see here — a police officer being honored by the mayor wearing white buffs, like that’s a Detroit moment,” he says, calling the photo of Wycoff one of his favorites alongside his photo of Big Sean receiving a key to the city.
Big Sean appears several times in the book, but Tetteh’s shot of him with the key jumpstarted the photographer’s professional career. He was invited to photograph the moment by a friend who worked in the mayor’s office at the time since the city’s photographer couldn’t make it that day. After showing what he was capable of, Tetteh was first in the line for the job with theneighborhoods.org.
Only in Detroit also captures milestones like the 100th abandoned home to be demolished by the city and the final days of the Joe Louis Arena’s demolition.
“They’re eyesores on the neighborhood,” Tetteh says about the abandoned home, which seems, at first, to contradict the positive narrative he’s trying to convey. “It was to show that the city has come a long way in knocking these buildings down, knocking down the ruin porn and making space for growth... I have the photo from the final stages of the Joe Louis Arena’s demolition on the page next to that as a kind of a parallel of things being knocked down in the city to make room for what’s to come.”
Tetteh has an exhibit of photos from Only in Detroit on view at the Carr Center. On Friday, Nov. 10, he will host a book signing from 6-9 p.m. to close the exhibit, which has been up since September for the Detroit Month of Design. Copies of Only in Detroit can be purchased on Tetteh’s website, supercyrusb.com.
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