Urban Luminosity

Urban Alchemist: American photographer Michael Eastman’s large-scale photographs examine our man-made environments on an international scale. Made in locations across Asia and North America over the last four years, interior and exterior spaces filled with reflective or undulating surfaces, dramatic lighting, and the distinctly unpopulated locales encapsulate the commonality of modern and contemporary architecture of some of our major cities: New York, St. Louis, Toronto, Osaka, and Shanghai. Eastman’s images are made after dark, requiring lengthy exposures. Pre-visualizing the image is impossible so the first time he sees the image is after it is processed and scanned into the computer. “It is a very compelling moment, as the previously unseen subtle traces of light and faint reflections emerge as stunningly bold field of color and unexpected compositions,” says Eastman.