Michael Surtees: “New York City Color Study”
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Most observations of sky color tend to focus on sunsets and sunrises when the most dynamic and vibrant colors can be seen, but what about the soft transitions and subtle changes of color from day to day? Michael Surtees’s observational photo series “ New York City Color Study” focuses on just that, and in the process enlightens us to the dramatic in the mundane.
On January 16, 2008 Micheal started capturing pictures of the New York City sky though the window of his Manhattan apartment. What has come from this seemingly mundane observation is an amazing set of inspiring images and a reminder that everyday is a new color.
The series is on-going and he isn’t planning on stopping anytime soon. The latest photo was taken April 17, 2008.
About “New York City Color Study”
For thirty six days now I’ve been taking an image of the sky from my apartment in Manhattan. It wasn’t until I started noticing that most mornings have a really unique colour to the sky that I thought there might be something to comparing the colour day to day. There isn’t any specific time for me to point my camera in the same direction though for the most part I’ve been taking the photograph somewhere between 7 and 9 am. As the sun starts rising earlier my time will probably adjust accordingly.
Uncropped View of New York City Colour Study
It’s a fairly uncomplicated process with the photos. Whether it’s sunny or cloudy doesn’t really matter because each day is unique. I always make sure that the crop of the sky is in a 4:3 aspect ratio with my Leica D-Lux 3. One of the cool yet unexpected things that happens when I upload the photos to flickr and place them in their set is that they create a square which is what the image above is. I always mark the date and time on the photo as extra information that I might want to use at a latter date.
I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon with this New York Sky Colour Study but over periods of time like this I might do some visual experiments with it. Between the colours and data there’s some really fascinating things I can do both online and with print. Stay tuned and here’s a link to all the images so far www.flickr.com/photos/michaelsurtees/sets/72157603736976953/
Read another post about “New York Sky Color Study” over at Shape + Colour.
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