The CityScape series of prints are simulated, or virtual, photographs.
I create model-like sets in 3D software, then ‘skin’ the forms with my own photographs, pose and light them. A virtual camera in the computer renders a final image by calculating each light ray emitted and reflecting around the scene - a process that often takes many days to realise. Finally, using Lightjet printing, a laser directly exposes photographic paper that is then chemically developed to produce a Type C, camera-less photograph of a virtual scene.
Building a city takes an awfully long time.
Digitization and rapid Urbanization are the two fundamental, world shaking forces of our era. In 1900 only 10% of the world’s population lived in cities, by 2007 that was over 50% and rising. The birth of the digital era also has transformed every aspect of being and grows exponentially. Both are unprecedented in human history and the central cause of many of our current woes and joys.
I began the CityScape series of virtual photographs in 2004 and have averaged about one a year since. While world cities increasingly become alike, these works play on the repetitions and differences among them and are inspired by my various travels to them.