Edi Chen 1

Some people hear the noise, Some people hear the rhythm.
Some people seem glamorous, Some people seem lonely.
Some people talk about fashion, Some people are making history.

Sunrise, sunset.
Four seasons in one year.
One city. One person. One camera.

It was a cloudy day on July 15, 2016: New York City Center has existed for centuries on Broadway only a few blocks from Times Square. It is Manhattan’s first performing arts center and is built in a Neo-Moorish style. Ten Islamic arches shape the front doors accented by ten pillars and ten windows. The gray brick stripes the street like a timeline. I stood opposite this facade and set up my camera, at that very moment a woman was walking and talking on the phone right into my picture. I waited until she was positioned in the middle of the door and pressed the shutter. This is one of my many New York images, taken over 366 days, one photo a day. Symmetry was created by black and white and are both active and still, modern and historical, I call them “balance.” They include 228 images of buildings, 51 images of landmarks, 38 images of subway photographs, 38 images of subtleties, 33 strangers, and 11 images of bridges.

All things exist and obey balance and New York City is no exception. We deliberately build symmetrical buildings and objects in pursuit of visual balance. At the same time, all forms of life that live in this city are both active and passive, quiet and restless, harmonious, opposite, past and future. We are influenced and affected by this city and are trying to build the balance we are searching for and in doing so have become part of it. We all share this city and its future.

In Chinese culture, the mysterious yin and yang is another expression of balance. These two concepts create balance in life. Opposition, interdependence and reunification, all things come to be through the interaction of yin and yang.

light is yang; dark is yin.
Outside is yang; inside is yin.
Up is yang; down is yin.
Active is yang; still is yin.
The Past is yang; future is yin…
"The yin and yang, the way of heaven and earth."