Japanese photographer, Satoki Nagata moved to Chicago in 1992 to document the city and its people. His background is in neuroscience (he has a PhD in the field), but his passion is creating intimate documentary photography projects in his city.
During a recent winter, Nagata decided to try his hand at using a flash for street photography at night. Instead of mounting his flash to his camera, however, he decided to use it off camera. Combined with the light rain and falling slow, the flash turned many of his photographs into abstract and surreal images that almost look as though he overlaid photographs of stars. The resulting series is titled “Lights in Chicago.” Nagata tells us, “In my most recent work I see the light and shadow produced by flash is the pure form of reality of people living in the city. Inside the bright light line, the significance of existence of the person appears. The image is abstract and surrealistic but also full of life and personality. Transparent layerings are created by flash with slow shutter speed and no reflection is involved in these images.”
I really need to see more spoken word shows, it send shivers up my spine every time and I’m always really captivated and moved by how metaphors weave in and out with hard truths. It’s an awesome experience to have live, like tonight, and I was surprised by this little niche of student talent that exists at my school, through this club that a friend of mine will be president of next year. And an extra note to self is to go to a Green Mill poetry show, where I hear this kind of performance really originated at this bar just a little north of here, soon when it’s legal for me to go in there and enjoy the show.
