Characteristic photographs of New York and Los Angeles, alternating, in black and white for NY and color for LA.

Imaging the city--as stage set and backdrop for city life--without the distraction of “the passing scene” of human activity which, when included, will virtually always consume the attention of the photograph.

Background becomes foreground.

These photographs depict the stage of city life: objects, buildings, spaces, oddities--artifacts of ideas, handiwork, manufacture and neglect of things created by people for people--although no people are depicted. They reveal that absence of people is not absence of humanity, and emphasize that the city’s size, complexity and density or sparsity offer endless opportunity for discovery and surprise—that confirm humanity‘s presence.

The city palimpsest depicts ages, layers, additions, removals, voids and vacancies--the ethos of the city rebuilding itself continuously.