The People of Detroit is a media project that uses vivid portraiture and engaging essays to change how people think about living in Detroit. Since its inception in April 2012, TPOD has received national and international attention. Portraits from the project have appeared in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Fast Company and other national publications. In early 2011, a creative director saw the project on flickr.com and hired TPOD founder Noah Stephens to shoot an ad campaign for McDonald's Corporation in Shanghai, China.