My life in the street of ghosts

Inspired by, and with a take on the title of “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts”, a 1981 album by Brian Eno and David Byrne.  It was in turn  titled after Amos Tutuola’s 1954 novel of the same name.

I was attempting to do a variant on the street photography I was shooting at the time, but which echoed the album’s combined sampled vocals, African rhythms, found sounds, and electronic music; by creating a visual mix. Shot from a higher than normal point of view, the pavement, becomes the backdrop for the transient figures.

Apparently, the album was recorded entirely with analogue technology, before the advent of digital sequencing and MIDI. The sampled voices were synchronized with the instrumental tracks via trial and error, a practice that was often frustrating, but which also produced several happy accidents.

The creation of this series also brought about several “happy accidents”, which were integrated into the later shots in the series.