Tokyo, Hong Kong, New York, where giant skyscrapers spike out of the ground as sleek metallic cars weave incessantly at their feet . . . but when I walk these towering megalopolises with camera in hand, I discover that through the viewfinder other, doubled images begin to emerge.


Stepping inside a cavernous shopping gallery, I am greeted by a manmade sky arching overhead and manmade fountains and even streams artfully arrayed below. As pleasant as they are, these artificial landscapes are empty of the earth spirits whom the humans of old knew so intimately. When these and other urban textures mirror the sky and clouds and sun--the only real nature to be had in the city--it is as though some oracle were giving pronouncement on our fate.


With expanses of barren concrete locking away the mother soil underneath, a great metropolis is certainly inhospitable to most forms of life. For its human inhabitants, though, it does hold out the endless hope that here they might be relieved of all possible fetters and soar free. To feed that illusory dream, vast quantities of energy are pumped into the cities.


True, cities have hosted tremendous advances in human diversity and creativity. But now that their magnitude is swelling close to the limit, the time has come to rethink their existence, from the ground up.


***
That was my conception at the series’ start, but as to bringing it to an end, for a long time the shots merely piled up as I struggled to crystallize my concluding vision. Then one day I had an opportunity to interview the great Kikuji Kawada, and all at once, with the inspiration given to me by his words, everything came together. Here is what he said:


“Today, everywhere we look, we are surrounded by chaos. We see it reflected in the minutiae of human life. The more tyranny and violence we have prevailing from those at the top of the system, the more inevitable it is that art and photography too will change. Even straight photography is bound to change; it can’t be right for documentary styles to remain the same age after age. Naturally we will start moving toward using lost colors, or perhaps alien colors. Taking advantage of Photoshop could help give such efforts more reality. Of course, even without Photoshop the change will still happen. When sensibilities shift, after all, they shift in totality.”