Across the urban landscape we are confronted by myriad people, buildings, things, scenes. Our surroundings feel familiar, safe, ordinary, innocuous, but they are susceptible to changing interpretations, like the changing moods of the anonymous people around us. We can’t always decipher the true mood of these urban inhabitants, and we are likewise often deceived by our surroundings.
A city, in particular, with its infinite variety of sights, its shifting light and shadows, and its changing colors, shapes, and patterns, lends itself to multiple narratives relative to the same scene. At any given moment, depending on our frame of mind, our angle of view, the time of day, or perhaps the quality of light, our interpretations change: these seemingly familiar, safe, ordinary encounters take on a potentially more uncertain, ambiguous, unsettling, even menacing character. We can never be entirely sure that we are accurately interpreting the story behind what we are seeing.
“City Deception” explores the landscape of New York City to witness this darker narrative that emerges.
