City - NOMINEE: Julian Master

Julian Master’s In The Red refreshes the overcooked label of “New York Street Photography” by asking us to break down all barriers of cynical pretension and simply ask what it generally means to exist in a city. It means, today, an unprecedented degree of chaos and diversity, in both appearance and personal opinion. Master mines for images of people stuck in the strange ironies and dreamlands of the 21st-century, those trying to “make it” among those who’ve given up (and vice-versa), surrounded by the incongruous shapes and conflicting objects of the 2016 urban landscape. Like the sensibility of today’s ideal New Yorker, his work is hostile and engaging without assuming prejudice. It presents the city as it is, reminding us that it’s still the place of romance and mechanized insanity that it’s always been.

About author:
Julian Master is a 24 year old photographer from Eugene, Oregon currently living in New York City. His work deals with the relationship between cities and commercialization, globalization, and the age-old theme of weirdness. Not formally educated in photography, Julian derives inspiration from placing himself in unfamiliar crowds, traveling abroad, and dealing with extreme weather. As the winner of the FujiFilm X World Photography Contest in 2015, he currently curates a monthly column called Disposable Diaries for VICE Magazine.