photographs of darkened cities by thierry cohen

‘darkened cities’ by thierry cohensan francisco 37° 48’ 30’’ n 2010-10-09 lst 20:5839 x 60 inch pigment printedition of 3image © thierry cohen

thierry cohendanziger gallery, new yorkmarch 28th to may 4th, 2013

since 2010, paris-born artist thierry cohen has been developing ‘villes eteintes’ (darkened cities) – which depict 
the major cities of the world as they would appear at night without light pollution. using methodologies 
employed by early 19th century photographers like gustave le grey, cohen captures images of certain regions, documenting the precise time, angle, and latitude and longitude of his exposure. by noting the precise latitude and angle of his cityscapes, he then tracks the
 earth’s rotation to places of atmospheric clarity like the mojave, the sahara, and
 the atacama desert, setting up his camera to record what is lost to modern
 urban dwellers.



compositing the two images, cohen creates a single new image full of resonance
 and nuance. the work is both political and spiritual questioning not only what we
 are doing to the planet but drawing unexpected connections between disparate
 locations. equally importantly it asks: what do we miss by obscuring the visibility 
of stars? as the world’s population becomes increasingly urban, there is a
disjunction with the natural world which both cohen and science posit causes both
physical and psychological harm. cities that never sleep are made up of millions 
of individuals breaking natural cycles of work and repose. the series
 attempts to restore our vision, hoping to re-connect users to the infinite energy of the stars.

new york 40° 42’ 16’’ n 2010-10-09 lst 3:4026 x 40 inch pigment printedition of 5image © thierry cohen

rio de janeiro 22° 56’ 42’’ s 2011-06-04 lst 12:3439 x 60 inch pigment printedition of 3image © thierry cohen

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