From James Baker’s review of Michael Massaia’s series, “Deep in a Dream: Central Park,” for Sploid:
Michael Massaia started this series of beautiful night photographs of New York’s Central Park as a way of coping with severe insomnia. He’d walk alone with up to 50 pounds of kit and no interruptions—except for an occasional attempted mugging, solicitation or dog attack.
All of the images were shot using an 8″x10″, 5″x7″, and 4″x5″ View camera and captured on slow black and white film, which was then custom developed and printed on special paper. The enlarged negatives and masks are used for contact printing. Here he talks us through his experiences and processes:
“I would commonly walk through the park alone at all hours of the night secretly hoping to find another fellow insomniac to share the late night walks with but never did. What I did find was a landscape that seemed to go through a complete metamorphosis between the hours of 2am-and 6am.”
“I began drawing up/storyboarding areas of the park that seemed to show the most severe contrast of the surrounding life in the city met by the most isolating areas in the park. I would then use these drawings as my blueprints in creating the photographs.”
View Michael Massaia’s series “Deep in a Dream: Central Park”
Browse all of Michael Massaia’s work at ClampArt