White Smoke, Brown Glare, 2024
At the beginning of March, I get off the subway for the first time at my home station in Brooklyn. A deep voice greets me at the intersection from under the hood: "Hello, Mr Traveller!". I must be having a really hard time hiding my huge and considerably overweight suitcase full of photobooks, which I bring with the desire to succeed in a city where nothing is impossible. After being coldly ignored by most of the editors of the big-name newspapers, my desire to pursue the American dream cools down a bit, but I soon turn my attention to the joys of big-city life.
Living here is living in the movies. The tall skyscrapers over which millionaires whiz by in their helicopters, the white smoke billowing from the street canals, the fascinating people of all nationalities and fashions, the rats in the subway stations and the omnipresent noise that soon makes you realise that headphones in this city are not only useful for listening to music, as a fashion accessory and a status symbol, but also as a tool for survival. Many people are completely exhausted by the fast pace of life, working three jobs at once and the constant pressure of success that seems within reach, but for many is never really attainable.
In the city that never sleeps, dreams are both realised and shattered to pieces as often as anywhere else on the planet. I have met strangers, and some have become my friends, and I have come to know their longings.
Nik Erik Neubauer
The solo exhibition is dedicated to photographs taken by Nik Erik Neubauer during his stay in New York City, USA. Drawing on the characteristic rawness and immediacy of street photography, he focused mainly on the everyday life in a city marked by great social and cultural divisions, on the splendour and misery of a metropolis where only the wealthy live in comfort.
Curator: Miha Colner
Limited edition prints available here.
Exhibition in Cankarjev Dom, Ljubljana.
Upcoming exhibition at VN Gallery, Zagreb — October 9