In this body of work, Yankus turns away from the soft focus which characterized much of his earlier imagery. In these photographs of the city, there is a very precise, almost hyper-real quality. The exactitude of the lines and the enormity of detail (down to the definition of individual bricks in the façade of a thirty-story building) imbue the photographs with the meticulousness of architectural renderings. However, Yankus plays off of the rigidity with a soft, subdued palette and a texture in the images which curiously seems to speak of history, memories, and the past.
The artist considers the photographs obscure and surrealistic portraits of New York City buildings. He writes, “In my new work, I have attempted to ‘rebuild’ New York through my own, imagined vision, in which the city’s historical buildings, so often taken for granted, exist as living presences.”