Investigating one of the many squares found throughout the built environment.

The City Is a Work of Art

Flying through the city on my single-speed road bike, I search for my next shot. The digital SLR rides safely within my courier bag as I weave in and out of gridlocked traffic. My legs, pumping like pistons, propel me through the urban landscape; my thoughts synchronize with my movements atop the steel-framed bicycle. Sustained pedaling creates a gentle rhythm, which parallels that of my breathing, that of my heart. I am one with the city.

Cycling is the best way to explore the city. You can navigate the urban terrain more efficiently this way. You move at the right pace, neither too fast nor too slow, without taking up much space or contributing to air and noise pollution. You are able to observe things motorists miss. Being inside a car—windows up, AC and radio on—cuts you off from the world. And while walking is great, you cover more ground on a bike. Riding a bicycle is the perfect synthesis of human being and machine.

The camera too is a machine, the optics of which simulate the functions of the human eye. Like riding a bicycle, photography exists between two poles, in this case that of the handmade aspect of painting and the rapid-fire sequence of moving pictures. Photography, born from the history of painting, is situated between Old World modes of picture production and modern film and video. Just as riding a bicycle is the best way for exploring it, photography is the best means to communicate my ideas about the ever-changing city.

The city through which I ride is a massive, collective work of art. I am fascinated by its spectacle. No single image can capture its complexity. This is why I take multiple shots—often of square forms I come across while wandering the city and buildings under construction or in ruin—and later reconfigure them into photomontages. The Constructions series consists of cubist-like composites of buildings being built. A similar series, Ruins, documents their demise. The Square Project documents site-specific squares arranged into a 3 x 3 format, recalling the gridiron street layouts in which they were found. The subject of my art–the city–also informs my writing.