In this fashion-driven city where you are what you wear, I sometimes lose faith in the humanity and groundedness of New Yorkers. If your Chanel bag isn't up to season and your Christian Louboutins are slightly worn in, the world may actually collapse... As I watch this image-absorbed union of people around me care more about the sales at Barney's than the homeless people they step over in the subway, it makes me think: What would we do without clothes? How would we portray ourselves to other people? How would we show our social status to obtain the treatment we want or deserve from others? Would we feel comfortable just being who we are and not having to show off what we have (materialistically speaking)? And of course, what in the WORLD could we spend all of our hard-earned New York dollars on?! I wanted to experiment with this idea in fun and from there was birthed a conceptual project, Nue York: Self-Portraits of a Bare Urban Citizen. From Hudson to Houston and from Bowery to the Bronx, photographing Manhattan has never been such a rush. All photos were organically taken by me with the help of a remote-controlled shutter release.
