Fragments is collection of both digitally captured and AI generated photographic prints of analog subway station billboards weathered by use and at the end of their lifespan endangered by their digital counterparts.
As I walked through the streets and subway stations of New York City, camera in hand, I viewed the cityscape through the lens of a Geographer deeply fascinated by the rich tapestry of human diversity and the unfolding dramas amidst the urban energy. Equally captivating were the intricate patterns arising from the city’s layered history, etched into its very surfaces.
Representing a 20-year photojournalistic study, each image, either naturally or artificially derived, is an archeological portrait revealing clues about the community and individuals who influenced their appearance.
Figures appear amongst the remnants, messages appear between the layers. Like Kurt Schwitters or a Jackson Pollock, each communal artwork is a testament to theories of “morphic resonance” and a holographic universe. As if Basquiat and Matisse had a love child masquerading as billboard maintenance in the tunnels under New York City prolifically leaving one of kind artworks behind, concealed in plain sight while telling multidimensional stories about their creators.
The artwork is a reminder that all of us are the sum of the fragments that remain from a lifetime of experience and knowledge. That the consistent layering of creation and evolution engraved in the surfaces of our habitat reflect our reality in both time and space.
As a fellow collaborator of these communally emergent masterpieces, I look back at 50 years of life and experiences with appreciation and respect for the weathering of this physical body as well as the family and the friends that gifted fragments of memories and emotion that defines “me”.
