For years, a vintage postcard of Prague has held court on my studio table, a daily touchstone that speaks to something deeper than mere architecture. The Gothic spires and medieval towers rising against that moody sky aren’t just picturesque – they’ve fundamentally shaped how I see the world around me.
Through this image, I’ve understood that the most compelling aspects of our world rarely follow neat, orderly progressions. Like Prague’s jumbled skyline, with its dramatic towers and irregular rooflines pressing against each other, life resists smooth transitions. Public spaces don’t politely end at designated boundaries – they reach their tendrils deep into the urban fabric, creating complex intersections of physical space and social life.
My camera roll tells this story of urban fascination. While others might focus solely on the grand vistas and monumental spaces, I’ve always been drawn to capture those quieter moments where urban scales overlap. With its intricate network of alleys and side streets threading between grand civic spaces, Philadelphia exemplifies these special moments of urban poetry. Trinity Street might suddenly frame City Hall’s tower, or a narrow colonial alley might offer an unexpected glimpse of Rittenhouse Square. These photographs document the city’s ability to move us gradually between scales of intimacy and publicity, private and collective experience.
Some of my most treasured urban moments occur in those liminal spaces where intimate side streets suddenly open into grand public plazas or gardens. These transitions mirror our own psychological journey as we move between private and public spheres – that delicate negotiation we make as we emerge from a quiet alley onto the grand promenade of Commonwealth Avenue in Boston or the elm-lined alleys of Central Park. There’s something profound in how these spaces accommodate our need to shift between roles: one moment the quiet observer on a secluded bench, the next a participant in the grand theater of public life.
This understanding manifests directly in my sculptural work, particularly in “Threesome with art book insert, Beastie #30,” a portrait of my grandfather. The piece explores how personal identity exists within the larger public space framework – much like how we negotiate our place walking down these transitional urban pathways. The sculpture’s three interconnected frames create their own journey of revelation and concealment, echoing those magical moments when a narrow street unexpectedly reveals a grand plaza.
The sculpture’s mirrors, some weathered and clouded with age, others still reflecting light, speak to this complex relationship between public and private space. Like the reflective windows of Prague’s buildings, which simultaneously reveal and conceal, these mirrors hold multiple truths: they reflect the viewer, hold the memory of my grandfather’s portrait, and capture fragments of their surroundings. The chain that connects the frames suggests those essential transitions between intimate and public spaces, between personal memory and collective experience.
The piece balances precariously on its metal points, much like how we as individuals maintain our private equilibrium within the demanding theater of public life. Just as a city bench offers respite and a chance to shift from being viewed to becoming the viewer, the sculpture’s various angles and surfaces provide different ways of engaging with personal and public narrative. The ornate golden frame, distressed mirrors, and luminous blue glass segment create a kind of architectural psychology – each element representing different aspects of how we present ourselves in public while maintaining our private narratives.
This postcard has taught me that the relationship between public and private space is never simple or linear. In cities and personal narratives, meaning accrues in these nuanced, jagged, and complex transitions. The negotiation of place and fit – whether in an urban landscape or in our own sense of self – is endlessly fascinating. These are the moments I’ve spent decades photographing: the subtle shift of scale as an alley opens to a square, the frame of a colonial archway revealing a public garden beyond. Like Prague’s skyline and perfectly scaled urban transitions, my sculpture embraces these complexities – creating a space where personal memory and public history, individual identity, and collective experience can coexist in dynamic tension. I always imagined this beastie being my tour guide – lighting the way through a confusing path.
What began as a simple postcard has become a philosophical lens through which I explore these intricate relationships between private and public space, individual memory and collective experience. In my sculptural work, as in the beloved urban spaces that accommodate our need for both intimacy and grandeur, the most profound moments emerge at these intersections – where private contemplation meets public spectacle, where personal narrative meets architectural form, and where the individual story becomes part of the larger urban fabric.
Twisted Preservation 