Familiarity, Intrigue, and Beauty: The Mundane Urban Landscape
A photo-essay that investigates the uncanny elements of the urban landscape, which seem unfamiliar yet familiar at the same time.
The other day I spent a couple of hours roaming the streets around my neighbourhood with my camera in hand and my wits about me. As an artist, I am often inspired by my natural surroundings however on this particular day, roaming the city streets my gaze is geared towards an unexpected direction. I find myself being drawn to the abstract shapes and lines of the urban landscape. The mundane repetition of walking along the storefronts that I pass on a regular basis is boring me and I tediously wander further for something more.
Finally, I find myself stopping at the moments between the buildings, the alleys and the sides of buildings that are not always visible until the passerby investigates further with initial hesitation followed by a childish sense of adventure and discovery of the unknown. These ignored spaces in-between or liminal architectural voids are filled with bizarre imagery that often appears misplaced and meaningless. Several architectures within the urban setting are filled with countless repeated shapes and elements of intrigue. I may not always pay attention to these often hidden components, therefore making them seem unique to me when I eventually take the time to notice them and become more aware in order to discover something entirely unexpected. Although these industrial elements often seem mundane and functionless, they strangely have to ability to produce character, animation, and life within them. Animated in a sense that when I encounter the object or rather subject, it seems familiar to me as if I’ve seen it somewhere before. They are intriguing because they are uncanny elements of the urban landscape that seem unfamiliar yet familiar at the same time.
Consequently, when I become more adept at identifying these moments of the uncanny, unexpected, and the intriguing, I begin to recognize a pattern in the types of imagery that I am drawn to. For instance, for reasons that I cannot seem to explain, I have always been fascinated with fire hydrants and fire hose connections on the sides of buildings. They often look slightly different in shape or colour, but it is something I immediately look for when travelling or visiting a new place. I find content in the repetitive act of noticing something that is familiar or significant to me as an individual who seems to be oddly aware of fire hydrants and fire hose connections. These everyday elements of the cityscape have the ability to create a sense of comfort and belonging.
Furthermore, as I continue on my walk I pass a building and stop in my tracks to look up at the window above. I walk across the street so that I can get a better angle of an unusual composition consisting of a window within a window, within a window. The moment is filled with lines, windows, shapes, and all in all an extraordinary pattern formed by architecture, design, and destruction. A man walking by the window looks up in curiosity and confusion. He asks me why I am photographing the window when it is cracked, old, and all in all uninteresting. In his opinion, I should photograph his portrait instead. However, I simply answer that I think it is worth photographing, even though it may be something that gets overlooked or ignored. Thus, for the individual who takes the time to notice it can be an intimate moment of discovering the uncanny. I have always been interested in photographing the moments in the urban landscape that I find intriguing, familiar, and uniquely beautiful.