Urban Fever. Photobook.

Description

URBAN FEVER – Scenes from city life. Photographs by Jürgen Bürgin.

URBAN FEVER is reporting of life in the big cities in personal and emotional photographs. Jürgen Bürgin’s pictures tell stories, they carry secrets, and they discover special, poetic moments in everyday life.

There are influences of the big city films in Jürgen Bürgin’s pictures, whether they are from Woody Allen’s New York homages or Wong Kar-Wai’s Hong Kong melodramas. Sometimes you think of the still photos hanging in front of cinemas, which are intended to denote the film’s story and convey its mood. We meet an elderly New Yorker who stops in the night bustle of the city. He directs his gaze upwards, somewhere outside the picture, perhaps on a billboard. For a moment, time stops, and we are trying to read from his eyes. We are observing two children in Vietnam, who share a bike and cycle through the nightly Saigon. The boy sits in front and turns to the girl sitting behind on the luggage rack and pedals. One seems to hear the conversations of children. Violet light gives the scene something unreal. It is the cover photo of the book. And we meet a lady who had just maybe shopping on 5th Avenue in New York. She was driven to Metropolitan Opera by her chauffeur. It is pouring in torrents, and with a proud look the lady walks, perhaps belatedly, to the opera, carrying her purchases in her hand.

Above all, URBAN FEVER highlights the love of big city life and the people the photographer meets, but often only observes, and whom he sometimes photographs. In addition, at times, the outcome captivates the photographer, draws him towards it, and concerns him. The effect strikes his fancy and causes him to think about the life of the people he has photographed. Some of these photos are marked by the hectic restlessness of the metropolis, while others capture the silence and thoughtfulness of city life. But all of them express a singular mood: the big city fever.

The photos of the series URBAN FEVER have been shot in the years 2010-2016 in Tokyo, New York, Berlin, Saigon, Lisbon, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Barcelona. The book design was made by the Berlin based designer Nancy Moeller.