Beat Streuli’s photographs of street scenes from the metropolises of the world offer snapshots of everyday life. The protagonists of the pictures are usually unaware that they are being photographed and are caught in moments in which they seem withdrawn, with no sense of the effect they have on their surroundings, appearing unconnected even when they are with other people. Presented by Streuli as large-format slides or projected onto exhibition walls as loops, these pictures lift the individual out of his or her-relative- insignificance and fix them in museum-like eternity. Again and again, the Swiss-born artist is drawn to New York for his work, where he creates pictures of a special brilliancy, with passers-by stepping out into bright sunlight from the shadows cast by skyscrapers. Architecture, billboards, or colorful surfaces of passing trucks serve as fragmented backgrounds for people rushing by, excerpt-like constructs of images that in their aesthetics evoke the painting of the American Photorealists. This book of photographs, published in a limited edition and signed by the artist, presents a selection of Beat Streuli’s recent New York works.
