URBAN CROSSROADS

STATEMENT

Underlying the complex social dynamics of human interaction is the continuous exchange of social cues that define rules for behavior. The boundary between acceptable and aberrant behavior is very subtle but so easily detected when crossed. The non-verbal communication and dynamics get much more complicated when superimposed by culture, group identity, and environmental influences.

In crowded urban environments, where diversity collides with density, the social communication system is put under stress and tested. Assessments of one another occur instaneously and instinctually as we are pushed together, squeezed through bottlenecks, walk and wait in groups, stand in lines and navigate around obstacles, both physical and human.

The photos in Urban Crossroads capture the experience of social navigation. Still photography is a near perfect medium because it freezes peoples' instinctual behaviors, expressions, reactions, and my own perspective. I use the camera as a substitute for my eyes - making eye contact through lens, surveying environment and scrutinizing the people as if looking through a periscope. The result is an concentrated distillation of social dynamics.

The photographs were taken between 2010-2011 in downtown San Francisco.

Jason Winshell