Sentient Cities
“All that we see hides something else.” —Magritte
What if buildings had secret lives? What if invisible currents moved through cities? What if the city is a living system of relationships, currents, memories, encounters and possibilities—and photography can reveal some of what ordinarily remains invisible?
About this work
Cities appear to be made of solid things: buildings, streets, windows, bridges, walls. We think of them as fixed and familiar. But look again, and another city begins to emerge—a city in motion, full of connections, encounters, memories, and possibilities.
I begin with photographs of architecture and urban places, then alter them through multiple exposures, distortion, and other forms of image-making. I’m not trying to make the buildings unrecognizable. Instead, I want to suggest what might be happening beneath their still surfaces: invisible currents flowing through and between them, the traces of people who pass through, and relationships that connect one place to another.
As the photographs become increasingly fluid, architecture begins to behave less like an object and more like a living presence. Buildings bend, reach, embrace, dance, remember, and beckon. The familiar city becomes something stranger—but also more playful and alive.
These images are invitations to look again at places we think we know and wonder what might be hiding in plain sight.