Urbanism Study, 2001
It’s 6:50 PM. I find myself alone standing in the middle of the street
on the small meridian trying to quickly set up my 4x5 camera. I am near the
corners of Turk and Webster; the intense blue light left in the sky from the
setting sun will only last for about twenty minutes. I must work fast. This
is the third time I have been in this spot trying to capture the exact color
of light, and positioning of the trees with the lamp posts. I have decided on
a specific vantage point that communicates the concepts I’m exploring between
urban landscape and nature. I was drawn to this site because the relationship
between the tree and the lamp posts perfectly signified the coexistence in the
city between nature and man-made structures. There is something simple and silent
about seeing this tree and the lamp post so perfectly responding, or seemingly
responding to each other.
Diary entry from March 7,
2001, comments on Urbanism Study One (tree/bay bridge)
For the last five years I have been making photographs of the bay area’s metropolitan landscape. The images I have been making are a curious view into the tension between urbanized environments and nature based environments. These photographs have been a way for me to compare the elaborate systems that are found in nature with the complex systems we create within our society to form structure. From spending time looking at both "nature based" systems and "human based" systems, I have begun to ponder that the two systems seem to reflect one another in organic mysterious ways. And the repeated questions have come to mind: Are we reflecting nature, or is nature responding to us? My work has evolved from a conceptual comparison to a playful observation of this interaction.