NICHOLAS SIMENON
Living in New York City has tremendously shaped the way I picture space, the way I
capture people in their environment.
Watching everything moving around me in this gigantic hive made me think about
shapes, shadows, and structure in a different way. The way I construct my pictures is
quite simple: I find a framing created by the buildings, and I put my subjects in them. I
use the geometry of the shapes I see around me to recreate a sense of space.
This way of creating my work is extremely visible in Dwarfed. We can see the two
persons completely dwarfed by the structure of the Oculus. They are caught in the
bottom left corner, with the extreme weight of the pillars crushing them. This is a
recurrent theme of mine: the alienation we experience towards the gigantic concrete
jungles we’re living in.
Hive is a more direct representation of this. It’s the new big NYC attraction, the
now third tallest building, the Neiman Marcus Hudson Yards flagship building. This
gigantic tower is the exact representation of our creation crushing us. It has everything
New York desperately needed: a new Uniqlo and H&M store, a Kiehl’s, and even a
Sephora.
Dwarfed depicts how we are ants in our environment.
Hive depicts what we see as ants when we look up.
capture people in their environment.
Watching everything moving around me in this gigantic hive made me think about
shapes, shadows, and structure in a different way. The way I construct my pictures is
quite simple: I find a framing created by the buildings, and I put my subjects in them. I
use the geometry of the shapes I see around me to recreate a sense of space.
This way of creating my work is extremely visible in Dwarfed. We can see the two
persons completely dwarfed by the structure of the Oculus. They are caught in the
bottom left corner, with the extreme weight of the pillars crushing them. This is a
recurrent theme of mine: the alienation we experience towards the gigantic concrete
jungles we’re living in.
Hive is a more direct representation of this. It’s the new big NYC attraction, the
now third tallest building, the Neiman Marcus Hudson Yards flagship building. This
gigantic tower is the exact representation of our creation crushing us. It has everything
New York desperately needed: a new Uniqlo and H&M store, a Kiehl’s, and even a
Sephora.
Dwarfed depicts how we are ants in our environment.
Hive depicts what we see as ants when we look up.
