PROJECT 18 | 34 Downtown SD / 34 Thornton Hosp. |
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A printed 7x3 panel photomosaic matrix (actual size 10 ft. wide by 3 ft. tall) comprised of 3 months of bus riding. Click a panel above to enlarge.
While the photomosaic technique of using small pictures as pixels to constitute a larger image is exceedingly hackneyed and cliché by now, I felt that using it as a documentary tool on an extremely large scale might overcome some of that stigma. I was trying to explore the idea of recursive visual semantics — an image comprised of other images with their own unique connections to that of the whole — in this case, comprised of my memories and visual images over time that eventually comprise my overall cognitive schema of what "the bus" really is. Every day and night for 3 months I took a few pictures of whatever I saw that interested me, or bored me, and sometimes I shot Lomo style from the hip. I ended up with around 500 photos which I used as a palette for the final 11x17 inch panels (limited to that size due to budget restraints). I found the end result to be an extremely satisfying personal documentary of a bizarrely antisocial community space where many of us spend a great deal of our lives.