The City is a Choreography

I see the city as a place of constant movement. A rhythm we become part of once we step onto the concrete streets. The city is composed of strangers and familiar objects: the ubiquitous sidewalk, a slightly bent street pole, a bright orange traffic cone, or a broken-down bicycle left to rust. They all seem trivial and significant at the same time.

The City is a Choreography was photographed between 2017 and 2020 in various cities around the world. An exploration that started with the urge to step out of my everyday life in the city. I felt the need to experience the urban environment, with both eyes and body, instead of merely perceiving it. I wanted to figure out how to connect meaningfully with our daily environment and the strangers we pass by. It was the boredom of walking the same route every day, seeing the same objects and the anonymous faces in the crowd, that made me start to see the city as a choreography.

Melissa Schriek graduated from The Royal Academy of Arts in The Netherlands. She explores relationships between individuals and their environment through both observation and staging. Her work is often created with a performative approach, aesthetically and conceptually exploring the border between staged and documentary photography.