In March this year I travelled to the United States to attend the Wedding and Portrait Photographer’s International in Las Vegas. A side trip found me in New York undertaking a photography project with a difference. Walking from 45th Street and Broadway through the colourful boroughs down to Wall Street, I undertook to revisit the concept of multiple exposures taken within camera.
Walking through the hustle and bustle of the legendary New York boroughs of Noho, Chinatown, Little Italy and finally Wall Street and the World Trade Centre, the camera was trained on a specific purpose. To get underneath the skin of this diverse and multicultural microcosm of humanity.
Utilising the practice of multiple exposures in the traditional sense, I captured each set of two overlaying images adjusting exposure, focal length, and focus to convey the experience of being part of this unique cultural experience. The careful juxtaposition of the inhabitants and the built environment and the way they overlap in this multi layered society was crucial. A pronounced consideration for the signs and symbols – the signifiers – and the way they blend with the human experience gives us a truer sense of being part of this world. A truly man made world… unnatural, and yet a miracle in the truest sense of the word: A remarkable development that brings very welcome consequences.
The most obvious symbols are those featuring the American experience however close inspection of these images (they reveal more at a scale larger than presented here) reveals so much more. A group staring up at the new world trade centre lit by the reflected sunlight mirrors the tragic events of September 11. A massive Broadway billboard for the movie release of Cinderella overlaid on top of the human traffic, placing the star as a one of the consumers she is trying to attract. An overweight man head bowed to his phone oblivious to the historical architecture lying witness to the human disconnection.
These images were featured in the NYC 2015 photography book which won the 2015 QLD AIPP Photography Book/Album of the Year. This award along with the Landscape Photographer of the Year, and the 2015 QLD AIPP Professional Photographer of the Year have been proud achievements.
