Michael Eastman's 'Urban Luminosity'

Here is a look into American photographer, Michael Eastman’s current exhibition at Barry Friedman Gallery in NY. ‘Urban Luminosity’, the title of the exhibition, exemplifies architectonic alchemy. Reflections on metallic walls, the flattened perspective of a hotel’s rotunda, undulating waves of a Frank Gehry building and dramatic façade lighting, encourage us to examine our relationship with our man-made environs.

Almost all of the Urban Luminosity photographs are made after dark and therefore require very long exposures (up to ten minutes). Therefore, it is difficult, if not impossible, to pre-visualize the image. When the processed negatives are scanned and the image appears on the computer screen, the results are revealed for the first time. It is a very compelling moment, as the previously unseen subtle traces of light and faint reflections emerge as stunningly bold fields of color and unexpected compositions.