Matthew Pillsbury's Mesmerizing Summer

Matthew Pillsbury’s 2013 book “City Stages” collected a decade’s worth of his stunning large-format black-and-white photographs of urban life and scenery. Working mostly in Manhattan, but also in Paris, London, Venice, and other cities, Pillsbury used long exposure times to turn cityscapes, public gatherings, and iconic sites into shimmering apparitions of drama and social energy. In 2014, Pillsbury received a Guggenheim Fellowship to photograph in Tokyo, where he began shooting in color for the first time. After moving to Brooklyn, in January of this year, he applied his color practice to photograph New York City anew, this time exploring urban life in the outer boroughs as well as in Manhattan. (Last month, he photographed a projection show on the face of the Empire State Building for Photo Booth.) His new series of pictures, made this summer, shows seasonal events like the Coney Island sandcastle competition, an outdoor rave in Astoria, and the throngs of concertgoers at Prospect Park Bandshell. As always, the city through his lens emits a mesmerizing thrum.

6 September 2015