I have been working on a color series for the past 5-6 years, questioning all along what it actually is all about? While working on it during our current crises, I am beginning to realize it’s isolation that I’ve been addressing? This work has taken on new meaning and seems to also lean into the polarization, ignorance and insensitivity that many communities are addressing.
I am surprised myself that these images seem to have suddenly become so relevant. I did not intend for these pictures to become a stark reminder of this dark moment in time, but perhaps it is more than a coincidence that they are.
These photographs speak simply to people lost in space that are unrecognizable either unintentionally or by choice. Either way it is a statement on urban isolation, loneliness, and projection of loss.
How distant & light-hearted seems the past urban scene we’re nostalgic for, as described by John Seabrook, “Public anonymity- the ability to disappear into a crowd- is one of the great pleasures of city living.” Adversarial Man, The New Yorker March 16, 2020
Elliott Kaufman
