Suspended Cities: Behind the Reality of Constant Movement is the Veil of Constant Suspension

In collaboration with CrowdBooks, Martino Chiti opens our eyes to the underground and the everyday movements of people in transit in his new photobook ‘Suspended cities’. Chiti captures the spirit of the underground in multiple cities and turns the mundane everyday travel into an experience of the masses with beautiful portraits. Taking inspiration from the legendary Walker Evans, Chiti takes us with him on a journey of suspension, watching and waiting with the flaneurs.

Read on to find out more about this fascinating tale and for a chance to win a copy!

Hi Martino, could you tell us a bit about yourself and your background in photography?

I was born in Livorno, 1976. I began working on documentaries and photo reportage's, as well as working with video and new media during visual arts and music festivals. I'm a photographer, filmmaker and video artist, and I'm always looking for to experiment.

Let's talk about the idea behind Suspended Cities and what made you choose to create it in a photo book format?

The work is reflected in and transcends the images shot by Walker Evans in the New York subways in the 40’s. It doesn’t make reference to any specific place but to distant and different cities which appear here as if closed in one single space. The faces, which express the suspension and the naked rest of the passengers that use these means of transport every day, become metaphors as much of human essence as its modern dimension. Like many “flaneur” the people transit, linger, wait and leave. Behind the reality of constant movement is the veil of constant suspension.

The work is composed by portraits, (35mm colour slides) from 12 different underground networks worldwide, (Paris, Rome, London, Madrid, Napoli, Oslo, New York, Mexico DF, Santiago de Chile, Tunisia, Delhi and Tokyo). The only way to represent the multitudes of the faces was a book. The sensation of a single long wagon made by all the others mixed, creating a new city. Then I found in Crowdbooks a perfect way to finance and publish a photobook.

Suspended Cities was shot on film; why do you choose to shoot on film?

Simply because I started and made this project with a Nikon F3. This model lets you move the prisma out and watch from the top of the body. So I started to spend my time on the tubes looking at the passengers in front of me. After few tubes it slowly became a project, with his aesthetic and, his concept.

Obviously I also love analogue techniques. I think that it teaches you to take time in what your shooting. Even when you have to wait for your film to develop, you get to enjoy the surprise. I just showed my work at Analogica Festival 2016 in Bozen.

You’ve said that you are a videographer; do you think that having that background changes the way you photograph?

I don't think so. The background is about visual culture, music, cinema, photography but maybe the contrary. I started with photography so when I shoot in video I'm influenced by still images.

What made you choose the cities you documented? Did you have a preference?

I never choose. I shoot when I visit the cities for other reasons, so I take advantage of my time there. The cities are mixed, confusing one in the others. As for the concept of the work, I don't care about the differences, so I don't care about one or another. Now it's one. I did spend more time in some cities (New York, Tokyo, Delhi....) so I could better document the place.

You’ve mentioned that Walker Evans has been a large influence in your work, what other photographers have encouraged you to shoot?

I love Evans even if his influence on me is only about the conclusion of my work,

when I was looking for texts and meanings. I found meaning in this text at the start of my book, which describes the individuality, the suspended one.

“The guard is down and the mask is off, even more than when in lone bedrooms (where there are mirrors). People’s faces are in naked repose down in the subway.”

When I started I wasn't particularly taking inspiration from any work, I was looking for the no-gesture. Other work about subways (Pesaresi, Wolf, Davidson...) describe the social culture of a place or show the differences between them. Mine is less cultural and more visual.

I close the book with Calvino's piece of Invisible Cities, which is not the individual but the fluxus of everyone, the memories and the trades.

“Arriving at each new city, the traveler finds again a past of his that he did not know he had: the foreignness of what you no longer are or no longer possess lies in wait for you in foreign, un-possessed places.”

Do you see a contrast in era in comparison to Walker Evan's work?

I found Walker Evans' series “Many Are Called” quite similar to mine, even though it's documented in black and white and solely on the NYC underground. I think we look for the same things when photographing, capturing the same human feeling.

Photographing strangers, do you feel like you capture their personality or a façade?

I don't think is about personality, is more about people and their similarities and gestures repeated in different places. It's a global personality.

So what's in your photographic future?

A lot, actually I'm working on a project of photomapping, is called URBAN MAPPING. Along with Proforma Video design we go out at night and project over abandoned building and unexpected corner of the city. In this case I obviously mix video and photography.

This book project will not stop either, I will keep shooting the subways. I want to go to Berlin, Istanbul and Stockholm first, so maybe in 10 years I can publish the second volume!