Global City


  • Photographer
    Marcus Yam
  • Prize
    Honorable Mention
  • Company/Studios
    Los Angeles Times
  • Date of Photograph
    2013
  • Technical Info
    Multiple Exposures

In just a few generations, Seattle has grown from a pioneer settlement to the largest metropolitan area in the Pacific Northwest. As the city named after Chief Sealth looks forward to its place on the world stage of technology and trade, it also looks to its past, considering which parts of its identity it is willing to sacrifice – if any – in order to become a truly global city. These are triple-exposures made in-camera to fuse together ideals, metaphors, past, present, and future in an appropriate format that illustrates themes of ambivalence, rapid change, growth, identity crisis, isolation, moxie and entrepreneurialism.

Story

Over just a few generations, Seattle has grown from a pioneer settlement to the largest metropolitan area in the Pacific Northwest. As the city named after Chief Sealth looks forward to its place on the world stage of technology and trade, it also looks to its past, considering which parts of its identity it is willing to sacrifice – if any – in order to become a truly global city.

Seattle is my new home. So when I was commissioned to create a conceptual essay about the city of Seattle’s pursuit of becoming a global city, I had to figure out a way to fuse together the concepts of visualizing concepts, ideals, metaphors, ambitions, past, present, and future.

I am a photojournalist by trade. I strive to document and capture every moment as poignant as possible, weaving as much narrative and framing as much context as into one single picture as effectively possible.

How do I illustrate Seattle’s identity as “Jet City?” Or urban development? Or the cause and effect of the technological revolution? Or even urban disparities?

I could not see how moment-to moment documentary reportage told a complete story. After much deliberation, I decided that multiple exposures (triple) was the most appropriate format to illustrate the themes of ambivalence, rapid change, growth, identity crisis, isolation, moxie and entrepreneurialism.

So why triple exposures? It's a three pronged approach: In each exposure, I find elements that help contextualize my thought process: 1: a global city requirement, 2: a Seattle hook and 3: a metaphor to connect the first two elements.

These images are made using a multiple exposure function on a 5D Mark III camera, that allows me to combine 3 exposures in-camera producing one final image. In theory, in each exposure of an object, a scene, a detail or a moment allows me to extract a meaning, metaphor, or mood to help put it in context of the final exposure.

The beauty of this visual approach is that each multiple exposed image is subject to individual interpretation.

The concept of multiple exposures is not new. It dates all the way back to Eadweard Muybridge. Many photographers have delved into it and have created some inspirational work.

I only hope create something relevant and significant to the region and its people, to reconnect Seattle-ites to “Lesser Seattle,” a term coined by Emmett Watson, that sense that we live in a small big town, is being buried under the footprint of an ever-expanding population and building boom. The world is in our view, but as we invite more people and ideas, we wonder if we risk losing the ties that bind us – our sense that we are special people in a special place.

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