The collection of photographs aims to reshape the assumptions many people have about the city of Detroit.

Detroit Resurgent is on display at the MSU Museum until Jan. 12, and the official opening and reception is Sept. 18.

“Detroit really has worldwide recognition, making this exhibition timely,” MSU Museum acting director Lora Helou said. “The exhibit is all about people and human energy, not at all about the crumbling infrastructure or human decay. It focuses on people who choose to live and work in the city, in all kinds of ways. It’s a side of Detroit most people aren’t used to seeing.”

Perrin takes black and white photos of workers from around the world, including in Europe and Asia, in fields such as commercial fishing, agriculture and manufacturing.

One photo in the exhibit depicts a young, smiling woman working in a factory.

English professor Edward Watts, a Michigan native, said the public’s perception of Detroit is too strong to be changed by an exhibition.

“This is a problem that is on a massive scale,” said Watts, who has taught a course called Michigan Past and Present, From Pere Marquette to Marshall Mathers. “A single exhibition might not make a measurable impact on the public’s perception of Detroit. But, this (exhibit) contributes to the ongoing communication about Detroit that has started in a lot of places.”

Watts also said he likely will collaborate with the exhibit and Detroit-based writers to put on an event to bring attention to the current condition of the city.

The exhibition highlights a few well-known characters in Detroit, while leaving most as unidentified average people who work in a variety of services.

These everyday people were intentionally not named to imply that the people of Detroit will be the ones to carry the city to it’s former glory. Watts said that path, however, still is long and treacherous.

Nicole Ewenczyk, Perrin’s wife, said she and her husband noticed that Perrin had not taken many photos of American people, and they thought Detroit natives would be an interesting group to feature.

Ewenczyk translated for Perrin, who does not speak much English.

Perrin spent a lot of time with the subjects he photographed because he found it important to capture the human element of Detroit, Ewenczyk said.

“Most will show Detroit as a city where not much is happening,” Ewenczyk said. “This exhibition is to show that things are happening now in Detroit. People are helping each other to create something that is different from what has come before — a new town that is still Detroit.”

Also on display as a separate but related part of Detroit Resurgent is another exhibit called An Extraordinary Document of Our World, which features working class people from all around the world. The project took Perrin 25 years to complete.