Introduction:

In many ways this introduction has nothing to do with the photos it purports to introduce. We spent a long time thinking about what we could write to accompany the images, and the juxtaposition of various different commentaries with the work invariably produced various differing ways in which the work could be seen. A commentary at once closed down the meaning of the photos by presenting them in a specific context, and it also stretched their meaning by adding an extra dimension to the way in which they were able to communicate.

Maybe it is inevitable that words are needed to make explicit that which the camera only suggests. But in part that is the subject of the work: to see the way in which the city presents itself beyond the designs of its inhabitants, without explanation or qualification; to notice the patterns that appear in the structures and surface of the city despite their overall design; to look at how the deserted city projects itself and creates its own personality from the decay or disintegration of its buildings; and how the constant cycle of construction and reconstruction becomes itself the visual interest in the landscape. And then also to see how this perspective stands against the image purposefully placed on display by its inhabitants.