My Journey by John Retallack

This work expresses the experience of architecture and the city of New York. At that time I was living in the East Village. The goal of the project was always to make art with architecture and to reveal the unique character of buildings in East and West Village many of which were 100+ years old. With my camera pointed up the facades of buildings were transformed into landscapes (the architectural term for facades is Elevations). This limited perspective provided the unique vision I wanted. The project started spontaneously. Once I realized what I was doing, and how, I went looking for new subjects, new facades. I felt as if I was playing visually. At the time the photographs were exhibited in NYC galleries: two solo exhibits and numerous group shows. The work has not been seen in public since that time. The text was added in 2016 to further enhance the sense of environment. The text focuses the visual statement and creates a more complete statement. It describes the photographic process and the thinking behind making the images.