Cities in Transit

Cities in Transit (Printing Errors)

Global Transits and Portable Homes
Hand-made 17″ by 22″ prints.

This project is about global errands and technological errors. In collecting errors, I defy the understanding of photography as an art of mechanical or digital reproduction. The making of each print becomes a mini-performance of intervention and imperfection. The photographs are pulled out prematurely from the printer, leaving the lines of passages. “Communication error!” screams the disgruntled computer voice. This “human error” makes each print unrepeatable and uniquely imperfect. The process is not Luddite but ludic, not destructive but experimental. An error has an aura.

This series of “ruined prints” shows various ruins and construction sites of global modern architecture. Most of them come from cities that have survived wars, revolutions, terrorist acts, and economic crises—from Sarajevo to New York. I present portraits of cities in transit, taking pictures near the ports and train stations, questioning disaster tourism and juxtaposing the panoramic and the intimate. The more intimate images include scaffoldings with the dream homes of the future, the construction site in Manhattan, the home of an immigrant peacock, and the real estate pictures of sold and foreclosed homes from 2008.

All images, except three, are “straight” photographs. In the case of Sarajevo and Petersburg, I looked back at old snapshots of the damaged buildings rephotographing them and retaining the original blemishes and the glare.

Part of the book project “Nostalgic Technologies.”