How many times has the city that never sleeps been captured on film? The New York skyline with its skyscrapers and sea of lights has served as a dramatic source of inspiration for numerous visual artists. David S Allee started his career as an urban planner but turned to photography after graduating with an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2001. Shopping malls, parks, office blocks and parking lots have been the subject of his photographs. Set in either natural or artificial light Allee's works radiate a surreal atmosphere. Is it the absence of people? Or the rigid harmony between steel and concrete? Escalators to Astoria form an estranging partnership with the tunnel of light at the top. The mathematic balance between the pillars and the escalators may well portray a stairway to heaven. David S Allee: "My work reflects a relationship to the built world that shifts between control and randomness, strangeness and beauty, comfort and fear."
In the series White Nights artificial light played a decisive role: places that are extremely illuminated at night such as football stadiums and golf courses. In Dark Days Allee has chosen the opposite method. It is natural light that seeps in from the most unexpected corners. Goldman Sachs headquarters and the Trump International Hotel have never looked more alien and intriguing. Allee's emotionally charged pictures shine a pleasantly surprising new light on New York. Absolutely recommended.
Dark Days by David S Allee, January 30 - February 19
Morgan Lehman Gallery, 317 10th Ave.; New York NY
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