Times Square, New York 1997

This photograph of Times Square in New York by Andreas Gursky pulls you into its depths with lines and blocks of pale brown and beige. It’s almost hypnotic, how the photograph has this sense of almost infinite repetition. I’m struck by the texture, or really the illusion of texture. There's the way the light catches the edges, hinting at a rough, concrete surface, or the almost organic way the marks flow across the picture plane. Gursky presents a monumental vision of urban space, but one that feels both familiar and alienating. This photograph echoes the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher, who photographed industrial structures with similar systematic detachment, but here, the effect is less about documentation and more about the emotional and psychological impact of urban environments. Does Gursky’s work question our place in these sprawling spaces, dwarfed by the scale of urban development? Maybe. What do you think?