Michael Syracuse

Patterns, themes, and textures in the seemingly banal and mundane streetscape emerge. I’m drawn to the authentic, not to the outwardly beautiful. The hard to love. The layering over time. It is the making-do and the unintentional, not the planned that interests me.

In contrast to the exceedingly intentional and holistically planned New York, I have an appreciation for the city’s evolution — its degradation, damaging, patching, painting, concealing, repairing, and its mending. I try to capture these instances in a factual and unmediated way. I then sort and catalog these commonalities in a compulsive routine until the patterns become clearer.

It is not of the landmarks that interest me, but the side streets, the in-between spaces, and the everyday textures that define my New York.