Bright City

I can hardly believe that this picture steps back in time so far and carries six decades of history behind it! If I don’t look closely at the cars and that double-decker bus, I might think it’s a night from one of our very own recent nights and I’d remain in the present. The city is both modern and contemporary, as are the photograph and the photographer — a photographer with an unfamiliar name who glides softly and shadow-like over the city, tiptoeing and weaving a kind of magic. How many people, in that image-less era and society without display, captured the city’s nights? Why are people’s eyes so familiar with his sight? Why did that man so easily, unpretentiously, and playfully surrender himself to his camera? And what is the secret behind those golden and silver sequins and that fleeting nighttime moment that has held him back and made it his subject?

The pulse of the city’s life beats fast, and perhaps the photographer is witnessing a celebration. The city has draped its jewelry like badges of honor across its chest. The eye of modernity is in the hands of the photographer, roaming the festively adorned city night and looking towards tomorrow. The photograph seems to be about light, brightness, and enlightenment — in the midst of the emergence of the city and new citizenship.