$2500/sq.ft is a social satire playfully dealing with the destabilization of affordable urban housing due to the effects of luxury high rise apartment developments. The foot-print of luxury real estate has proliferated, limiting residents to high-priced housing. With pricing for housing so excessively high, cardboard boxes could become the next affordable housing model. The photographs are printed as both archival ink jet prints and vinyl banners referencing the commercial banners seen at construction sites advertising the upcoming building.
The interior ‘box’ photographs use a wide angle lens to capture the cheap, common, cardboard containers in order to mimic the architectural photography in luxury real estate marketing. The lighting of the box interiors helps convey a sense of a possible living space. Clean, contemporary coloring adds to the overall appeal of the imagined apartment interiors. Recently, the work of Joseph Albers has been an influence with his “Homage to the Square”. One of my recent photographs “Homage to the Square Rental” incorporates multiple square structures similar to his paintings but the boxes are on fire. Titles are based on headline copy from real estate magazine advertisements e.g. The NY Times Sunday Magazine.