1) Michael Massaia works in large format black and white film and platinum and silver gelatin. He also works in digital photography and printmaking. The images I picked are from two different series of his: Signals Crossed and No past, No present, No future. With Signals Crossed Massaia used long exposures and all his images were shot between 11pm and 4am using 8x10" and 4x5" view cameras. With No past, No present, No future, he used 5x7" and 4x5" view cameras and the final prints were toned silver gelatin and platinum.
2) Both of Massaia's series were shot in New York. Signals Crossed was an exploration of the effect of LED billboards blanketing urban environments. The lights combined with the long exposures captured hidden patterns during and between advertisements to represent disorder and overstimulation of the digital age. No past, No present, No future was a documentation of long sleepless nights that Massaia spent in hotel lobbies.
3) I love how he uses long exposure to capture patterns in light and I think he is successful in his statement about how the digital age creates disorder and advertisements affect us and are overstimulating. I also enjoy his hotel lobby photos because they capture quietness and solitude and a place where time does not seem to exist. Also, his compositions are beautiful.
They play on size and movement work really nice here, and the patterns add contrast.
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