JONATHAN CHERRY: What did you have for breakfast this morning?

PETER BAKER: A bowl of blackberries and pineapple, and a lot of coffee.

JC: Can you name 2 emerging photographers inspiring you at the moment?

PB: Emerging is tough; if I know of them, they must’ve already emerged. But I’m really digging Jake Stangel and Dalton Rooney lately, for somewhat opposing reasons. Stangel for his prolific output and hustle on many projects, and Rooney for his deliberate slowness and rigid editing on just a couple long term ones. Both make beautiful photos.

JC: Over the years you must have seen Michigan change. What is the current low down and are you excited about its future?

PB: I’ve long felt that Detroit is to Michigan as Michigan is to America. We saw the removal of the manufacturing industry here first, years ago, and it’s now being seen everywhere else. We’re the canary in America’s coal mine. So while it’s easy for people to dismiss it as a Detroit problem, or a Michigan problem, it just happened here first.

But I am also generally excited about the future here. The people that have stuck around are the kind of die-hards that make things happen. And Detroit is becoming cool and bohemian again in ways a lot of people are looking for.

Besides, the best parts of the state, the lakes and beaches and peninsulas and forests and dunes, they don’t care about any of this. As long as they’re still here, I’m happy. Though, I’d kill for a decent rail system.

JC: What is your current work about?

PB: I have a project about boom towns that have become somewhat unsustainable cities that I’m still working on, primarily in Las Vegas and Reno, but I’d like to include Phoenix and some of the other sprawling desert cities. There’s also a sprawling Great Lakes-centric project that I’m still searching for the thread in.

JC: Any interesting stories from the road whilst photographing?

PB: A guy in Slab City, the RV/tent city in Southern California, showed me a few dozen books of paintings he’d been doing. He was planning on selling the whole lot on Ebay for $100,000,000, and would drop the price $1,000,000 a day, figuring by the time they got to $5,000,000, they’d be such a steal that *someone* would have to buy them. I bought one for $20.

JC: Sea or river?

PB: Lake!

JC: What is next?

PB: I’m hoping to start a new project in Detroit this spring that will NOT be ruin porn. And there’re some ghost cities in China that I’m currently obsessing over. Who knows.

JC: Any pearls of wisdom to recent photography graduates?

PB: Be nice to everybody, it doesn’t matter how good you are if nobody wants to work with you. And shoot film if you can, but don’t sweat it if you can’t.

JC: Favourite 2 websites at the moment?

PB: Atlas Obscura and If We Don’t, Remember Me.

JC: Other thoughts?

PB: Tons.