Mathew Pokoik - news

I’m currently mid-way through a three week photo trip in India, working on the Global City. I’ve gone from owl sightings in the Catskill Mountains to the strange biodiversity of Delhi, India. The following is a list of animals seen freely wandering within the city limits of Delhi: Cow, Goat, Chicken, Camel, Monkey, Elephant, Dog, Cat, Rat, Donkey, Horse, Sheep, Wild Boar, and an assortment of unknown birds from parrots, herons, vultures and hawks.

Upcoming additions to The Global City will be taking place February 9-29 as we travel to India (details of exactly where in India are still being worked out). Houston, Texas from March 13-21 where I’ll also be attending Fotofest. Then from April 20-28 onwards to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil with my wife’s dance company AVMG.  I’ll be photographing while they’ll be performing at the Centro Coreografico do Rio. As always, if anyone has any friends, or suggestions about where to go, see, eat, or drink please let me know. You can e-mail me at: info(at)mathewpokoik.com

Dubai, The Global City/Media and the Street, 2007, ©Mathew Pokoik

from Plants in the City, The Global City, Dubai. ©Mathew Pokoik

I’ve just completed a major website update for The Global City, many images have been added along with a new organizational structure into series of related albums. The albums are for the time being:

The Street

The Street, Media, and Pedestrians

The Street and Pedestrians

Outdoor Markets

Plants in the City

Windows and Reflections

Monuments

The Bus

Words

Sacred Sites

Bodies of Water in the City

This is a living and morphing body of work and I expect that this list of albums will grow and change in the future.

from The Street, Media, and Pedestrians, The Global City, NYC. ©Mathew Pokoik

Mexico City, 9/07 ©Mathew Pokoik

The fifth installment of new photographs includes two images that I am quite curious about. They might be a new direction or sub-album or they might end up in the reject bin. Working on the Global City in Mexico City, has brought about a number of clarifications about my overall conception of the structure of the larger body of work. Particular albums and sub-albums are taking shape. Some of these series may currently have as many as ten complete photographs while others may be vague sketches with one or two finished images. I see this project as an ongoing epic-sized catalogue on a variety of themes relating to the modern global city. I have many years of work ahead, at the moment I’m trying to finish the initial sketch of themes along with at least one visit to a city in all the populated world landmasses. Still to visit to complete this is South America, Africa, and India.

Mexico City, 9/07 ©Mathew Pokoik

Mexico City, 9/07 ©Mathew Pokoik

Mexico City, 9/07 ©Mathew Pokoik

Words and letters may also become a sub-album within The Global City. I’ve been pondering the word images of Shannon Ebner, Lee Friedlander, Edward Ruscha and others.

Mexico City, 9/07 ©Mathew Pokoik

©Edward Ruscha

©Shannon Ebner

Sides of buses are becoming a sub-album within the series exploring the media of images in urban environments.

Mexico City, 9/07 ©Mathew Pokoik

Berlin, 5/07 ©Mathew Pokoik

Here is the first scanned image from my recent trip to Mexico City for the Global City.

Polanco, Mexico City, 9/07. ©Mathew Pokoik

This was a challenging and fascinating addition to my growing catalogue of cities. First World and Third World live side by side here, along with clear and decisive class distinctions between wealthy and poor. Two days after taking this photograph I was stopped while working at the same intersection, and (politely) questioned by the police for shooting pictures here. More photos will be coming soon.

I’ve just added a new experimental portfolio to my website - The Old World - it might be a new album or chapter in my ongoing collection of images exploring global urban centers. The Global City explores media nodule points within new environments of urban architecture. The Old World explores themes of history / ancient regimes / religious centers / parks / and colonial empires through their traces in the modern world. Traces that are often in today’s cities - epicenter’s of the global tourist’s travels.

Jerusalem, Old City, Muslim Quarter, Israel, 2007 ©Mathew Pokoik

I’ve not yet had time to list place information that goes along with each photograph - they’ll be coming soon. This is a changing and morphing project - I don’t think of the web site + my work + process as a fixed and stagnant being. It might be that this beginning of a new chapter in the larger work could eventually split into additional subsets and albums. Who knows? So please let me know what you think? And stay tuned for future changes.

Jerusalem, Old City, Muslim Quarter, Herod’s Gate, Israel, 2007 ©Mathew Pokoik