Hamtramck Labor Day Festival

Lynn Bernardi • September 7, 2026

Four decades of fun.


The Hamtramck Labor Day festival is an institution - it started back in 1980 during a time of uncertainty for the community after the closure of the Dodge Main factory which provided jobs to thousands of local residents. The city has always been a hub for immigrants, first the Polish, and now Arabs, Bangladeshi, Bosnians, and Serbians call this place home. Somehow despite living just a few miles away, this event completely escaped my notice until now. I was genuinely shocked and delighted by the scale of this event. I went to a smaller street festival here a few weeks earlier, and figured it would be more of the same, but there were rides, concession stands, multiple stages, and a bunch of street vendors.

looking up at a carnival ride against a clear blue sky in Detroit, mi

The Hamtramck Labor Day festival is an institution - it started back in 1980 during a time of uncertainty for the community after the closure of the Dodge Main factory which provided jobs to thousands of local residents. The city has always been a hub for immigrants, first the Polish, and now Arabs, Bangladeshi, Bosnians, and Serbians call this place home. Somehow despite living just a few miles away, this event completely escaped my notice until now. I was genuinely shocked and delighted by the scale of this event. I went to a smaller street festival here a few weeks earlier, and figured it would be more of the same, but there were rides, concession stands, multiple stages, and a bunch of street vendors. The weather was also extremely agreeable

Image of senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed speaking at Wayne Country Community College on 9/10/26

It Shouldn't Be This Hard Tour

By Lynn Bernardi • September 11, 2026
Image of senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed speaking at Wayne Country Community College on 9/10/26 as part of his It Shouldn't Be This Hard speaking tour.
a vendor table piled with gold jewelry for sale during a street festival in Hamtramck, MI

The Night Market

By Lynn Bernardi • September 9, 2026
Nighttime street photography from the Hamtramck Labor Day Festival, capturing vendors, crowds, carnival lights and candid moments in Hamtramck, Michigan.

The Most Gigantic Lying Mouth of All Time

By Lynn Bernardi • October 10, 2024
Crooked and Obscene Art Installation hits Detroit
Close up of a sea wall along the Detroit River with a little claw.

Photo Walk: Gordie Howe Bridge

By Lynn Bernardi • March 29, 2024
Where I take a walk on a really bleak day and look at some random industrial stuff downriver.
A trip to John K King books in Detroit

Old Books

By Lynn Bernardi • March 28, 2024
A couple weeks back, when it was still far too cold to contemplate doing a photo walk outside, Andy and I found ourselves at the venerable John K King Bookstore in Detroit. This place is such an institution, not sure why we don't visit it more often. Recently I've been moving all our photography books from home to our studio. I just never look at them at home because I've got no good place with great light where I can spread them out and pour over them without worrying about a random pet jumping on the table and messing them up. It seemed much wiser to bring them to the studio, but it's been an ordeal because our studio is on the second floor and photo books are HEAVY. And one day when we eventually move I'm really going to be questioning my life choices. But in the meantime, I'm finally spending some time actually looking at the books I've collected, and realizing it's been far too long since I've added any new titles. That needed to change, so my sneaky idea was to say we were going to John King to just browse and maybe take a couple photos, but I planned to scour the photography section for some new additions to the photo library.

An Introduction

By Lynn Bernardi • March 3, 2024
Do people even still blog anymore? I guess I'll find out. Hello there. Thank you for showing up here and being curious enough to find this post. Photography has been an interest of mine from the time I was a sullen teenager and discovered an old Canon FT-b while sneaking through my mom’s closet. Not long after I found myself in a high school photography class, peering over a print bathing in developer. Like many people, the moment that white emulsion slid into the tray and an image came to life from nothingness, I was hooked. It felt like magic. It would be many more years before I would finally allow myself to consider photography a viable career. Instead I bounced around doing things that felt safer, even if they brought me little joy. Fast forward to now. Over the last 15 years I have photographed weddings, built a small real estate media business with my partner, and done some portrait and branding work. Once photography became a way to pay the bills, the type of work that originally drew me to the medium went out the window. That led to some serious burnout, where I didn’t want to think about or consume photography, much less take photos in my down time. Thankfully that fog slowly lifted. I am remembering what drew me to photography and making an effort to go out there and take images for me. And while I hope that can lead to some more formal and collaborative projects more in line with my passions one day, for now I'm just enjoying making photos for me.