German artist Florian Böhm (*1969) photographs passersby on the streets of Manhattan, catching them in slow motion as they wait for walk: motionless, lost in thought, or deep in conversation, staring at nothing or sidetracked with a cell phone held to their ear. Böhm’s conceptual series of portraits relies primarily on chance. The selection of people, the spontaneous groupings, and the moment in which the photograph is taken is not controlled by a premeditated staging, but rather orchestrated by the rhythm of traffic regulations. Whether New Yorkers from all walks of society or tourists from around the world, the traffic light treats them all the same. And yet clothing, facial expressions, and posture reveal an astonishing wealth of information about each individual. Böhm lives in New York, and in the project EndCommercial, which he created in collaboration with Wolfgang Scheppe and Luca Pizzaroni, he has already demonstrated his infallible eye for the narrative details of urban life.

Exhibition schedule: FORUM 11/Fotomuseum im Münchner Stadtmuseum, January – March 2008  Cohen Amador Gallery, New York, September 10–October 18, 2008

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