two composite photographs / 2009
colour inkjet print and gelatin silver print, each 70 x 8″
Manipulations of Time is an exploration of the photographic documentation of urban rhythms, informed by Henri Lefebvre’s concept of ‘rhythmanalysis,’ a study of the city through an attentiveness to its natural and artificial rhythms. The work also probes the limits of photography—by its very nature, a form of manipulating time—in representing the city through documentation. The work blends chance and intent insofar it comprises an overlapping colour image of urban spaces and activities (produced by an accidental camera malfunction), and a purposefully composed strip of overlapping images of pages from Lefebvre’s book “Rhytmanalysis.” The particular chapter, titled “The Manipulations of Time,” discusses the effects of capitalism on the rhythms of our lives. Through an interrogation of the photographic medium’s relationship to time, the work thus also becomes a critical commentary on urban space.