What happens in that very special moment in urban space when a situation is about to, but hasn’t yet happened? These moments that consist of boundaries between time, space and object only last for a few seconds and yet feel as if they were frozen in time. Wei Chang, a photographer based in Taipei portrays cityscapes and people who become involved with urban landscapes. Although the photos of this series often show busy places, Wei Chang tries to find quite moments in those scenes. There is no specific action, people seem anonymous, emotionless, even faceless. But within this borderline anonymity, she succeeds in giving the city and its users importance. If only for a moment.
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The Shibuya District in Tokyo is one of the world's most busiest corners.. This urban space is overloaded with traffic signs, passers-by and skyscrapers that bear witness to high urban density. In the middle of the street, a faceless – to us, at least – person manoeuvres through the city. He turns his back to us and moves along at a different speed than the other passers-by. That is what makes him so special and differentiates him from the others. (Credits: Wei Chang)
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Tokyo, a nearly empty sidewalk surrounded by metro rails. The traffic in this area is actually quite busy, the environment noisy. The smart young man with his bag who seems to be in a hurry is in the center of the urban setting. Where is he going? What are his plans for the day? Maybe he is heading to the bus or metro for a long journey? But what about the other pedestrians? Nobody is looking at each other – they are strangers in an urban setting and will likely never interact, although they share the same city space. (Credits: Wei Chang)
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Pedestrian in front of the exit of a metro station in Taipei: It is 8 a.m. We can only guess what is going on in the immediate vicinity. Maybe the streets are full of passers-by and cars? What we see for sure is three people who act as if they were background artists on a stage that is formed by urban space. One of them interacts directly with the photographer so much that the line between her and us, the beholders, blurrs. The pedestrian looks at the artist but does not show any emotion in his face. However, there is a special relation- ship between him and the artist – just for a second. (Credits: Wei Chang)
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New Taipei City: A parking lot, located somewhere between the oceanside and the root of the mountains. The horizontal lines of the street, the wall, the ocean and the sky determine the composition of the photograph and form inherent borders. The bus stop, the parking cars, the street lamp and the telephone pole wire pass through the horizontal scenery and illustrate the way man is involved with and changes nature. (Credits: Wei Chang)
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A woman stands in the heart of Amsterdam's Central Station, surrounded by signs, display panels and passers-by. She gazes at her smartphone, ignoring the photographer and the surrounding. The smartphone allows her to shut herself off from her environment. It creates a border between society, urban space and herself. The photographer uses the image to critique a society that wanders across the world, yet ignores it, with downcast eyes fixed to their smartphones. (Credits: Wei Chang)
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Sandbags used for construction work in Japan create borders that divide an area into two. This scene shows how humans have influenced the natural environment and how they created borders in rural areas. Human intervention in the environment produced a kind of landscape vacuum that was filled by machines and sandbags. Despite this situation, the forest beyond remains untouched by human action, yet creates another border. (Credits: Wei Chang)
Find out more about Topos #104 Borders.
