Photo Credit: Tonoloway Creek Aqueduct, Hancock, MD by Adam Davies
Invisible Cities, a solo exhibition of photographic works
by Adam Davies
Saturday, September 30
Top of the World Observation Level presents “Invisible Cities,” a solo exhibition of photographic works by Adam Davies. The exhibition is on view from Saturday, September 30, 2017 through September 30, 2018. A free opening reception with light refreshments takes place Thursday, September 28 from 5:30 to 7:30pm. Guests must arrive by 7pm to be guaranteed entry into Top of the World. Top of the World is managed by the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts and is located on the 27th floor of the World Trade Center at 401 E. Pratt Street. Over the past four years, Adam Davies has built a series of photographs showing structures in the American landscape that are overlooked or marginalized: deserted sites, hidden passageways, the undersides of bridges.
These are sites of dissonance, between order and disorder, beauty and neglect, wealth and poverty, decay and renewal, past and present. While devoid of people, they bear marks of human actions. Traces of graffiti, unexpected reflections, retrofitted alterations, and unusual debris reveal layered histories that pile, accordion-like, onto a single place. Rather than as documentary photographs, Davies thinks of his works as psychological portraits of places seen through the gaze of the 8 × 10 inch large-format camera. This camera permits the lens to move independently of the film, allowing adjustments of perspective and focus to create images that are visually complex and immersive. The resultant images are intended to slightly disorient the viewer, creating a dreamlike sense of time and place.