In his energetic celebrations of the urban world, photographer Joel Schlossberg lavishes careful focus on the smallest detail while capturing the full towering scale and majesty of the city. Creating large scale images that are at once hyperrealistic and surreal, Schlossberg plays with the boundaries of reality. Soaring architecture melts with impossible shifts in space and perspective, while electric hues pulsate too vividly to be true. Textures are powerfully emphasized in line or smoothly dissolved into flat fields of color in Schlossberg’s digitally manipulated city scenes. One can sense the artist’s passion for the unique nature of the urban environment in these images, a joy based in familiarity with the gritty beauty and essence of the city.
Born in Brooklyn and now living in the suburbs of New Jersey, Joel Schlossberg frequently returns to New York City in his works, finding inspiration in the city’s many nuanced sides as it continues to touch his soul.