Untitled (New York City) c. 1980

Editor: So, here we have Shawn Walker's "Untitled (New York City)," a black and white photograph taken around 1980. I’m immediately struck by how disorienting it is; the superimposition makes it difficult to discern exactly what I'm looking at. It's a bit like trying to piece together a memory. What do you see in this piece? Curator: It does feel like a fragmented dream, doesn't it? The layers remind me of how we experience a city – a palimpsest of moments, buildings, reflections. Walker was a master of visual poetry, capturing the emotional resonance of a place rather than just a literal depiction. The double exposure seems almost to be searching for the soul within urban life, using multiple vantage points. What emotions arise in you as you gaze at the photo, or even just the… subject? Editor: I think I’m initially unsettled. There's something a bit eerie about the figure—I guess the superposition adds to that effect—almost like it's disappearing. But the city scene beyond feels familiar, even comforting, in a strange way. Do you think Walker was trying to express something about alienation in the modern city? Curator: It's a great point! Or, consider how we build narratives, not entirely clearly but we can build entire personas that have this weird effect of feeling naturalistic with layers, with half memories of reality that are very…human? To respond more clearly to the human experience in an objective place like New York. But that sense of alienation is palpable. Perhaps he's showing us how the individual is both immersed in and isolated from the urban landscape, like figures trapped in a mirror. It really allows one to pause for self-reflection on this interplay between identity and the coldness of big cities. Editor: I like that: a reflection of ourselves reflecting. Seeing it that way makes me appreciate how the composition, which I initially thought of as "messy", mirrors that complex experience. Curator: Indeed! So this made you pause, re-assess, see how something beautiful arises unexpectedly. I'd say your sensitivity has just gifted this photographer a brand new pair of eyeballs.