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JEFF LIAO: HABITAT 7 DETAILS: Jeff Liao NOTE: There is a second set of this work as duratrans transparencies mounted to ultra-slim lightboxes for the smaller prints (20" x 48" ) and traditional lightboxes for the 5 large images (40" x 96")t DESCRIPTION: Four of the earliest major civilizations were formed in river valleys. The rivers provided easy communication and transportation while the fertile valley land provided surpluses of food that allowed for the growth of populations, and development of cities. Thus civilizations developed. Though we now live in a post-industrial era where the growth of cities and civilizations no longer depends on the availability of food, but on increasingly abstract forces, the pattern of our living space still resembles that of the ancient river valley civilizations. Such is the 7 Train, a seven mile long manmade river that connects New York City’s Times Square with seven communities in northwest Queens, the most ethnically diverse county in the United States. “While I’ve been living along these tracks for years, I am still constantly awed by the complexity of the communities formed alongside it as well as the harmony so many people of distinct backgrounds are able to live in. I set out to photograph the ‘habitat’ of the 7 Train as I came to see it, with a focus on not the individual but the people as a whole, as well as their relationship with their environment.” – Jeff Liao |
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