Considering that in the last just over two months I have drifted through six countries, from leaving my short home in North Africa, to a whirlwind through the UK, to a long awaited visit to the US, to a return to China, my mind has been pulled taught through myriad urban and individual landscapes, through contemplations on multiple themes. For this reason I have let up on posting. A number of people have pointed this out and I apologize. I will attempt to rectify this issue in the coming weeks with a return to more regular posting as I change gears to fit my place in Beijing, with a new focus on writing. Please stay tuned.
With all this, of course, I have been thinking a lot of about travel recently, about both planned and organized travel and the more free-form exploration of situationism and Buddhism, that of the derive and meditation. As I have been drifting through the convoluted and labyrinthine hutongs of Beijing I have kept constant a thought about digging deeper than the surface image, about piercing the outer husk of form and substance that makes up the city and faces of urban life. There is a lot more to it than that but for this simple, long promised, poorly executed, return to rambling I just wanted to share a recent photography collection from Urbanartcore on urban exploration. The piece begins by noting:
What makes an urban exploration photographer noticed or well-known? Is it the number of photos he or she has collected, the calculated risk they take, or is it just the general hype about this new urban adventure? None of these – the most important reason behind any urban exploration photography hero is the extraordinary photos he or she has taken!
I will be posting more visual and textual references to urban exploration, space, place, and theory in the coming months but until the next entry of my own work and thoughts, enjoy this brief collection of images, from vertiginous to troglodyte, available at Urban Exploration Photography.
michaelcaster 