out of place

Out of Place the book is sold out!

We are facing the biggest wave of urbanisation in human history. How is this fast-growing population density influencing the behaviour of everyday commuters in the streets of the world’s most crowded megacities? With this project, Bas Losekoot provides insight in the psychological journey of commuters in modern megacities. Placing his camera in liminal spaces of the city, he is addressing the state of in-between-ness of everyday dwelling.

With an intuitive eye, he observes the ‘presentation of self’ and ‘micro-second meetings’ that everyday urban encounters prevail. He succeeds to distil the extraordinary out of the banal; displaying an intimate thought-provoking vision on private lives in the public domain.

see images per city:


Urban Millennium Project

Urban Millennium Project

In 2011, I started a visual exploration of the consequences of growing population density. I selected nine fast growing megacities around the world that hold 20 million inhabitants, or will reach this number in the next couple of years. The cities I photograph are ‘on the move’ and its inhabitants are in transit. This in-between-ness is representing the present urban state of mind of unfocussed attention of the city dwellers. Metropolitan life over-stimulates our senses to which we react with indifference and blasé attitude. With the help of telephones, headphones and sunglasses, we detach from space and reality. I am fascinated by the distances between people as well as the human scale in relation to the built environment. I work in the most crowded streets of cities, where there is very little personal space and people brush-passing each other. I am drawn to the working of the arresting shutter: the unique quality of photography to arrest movement. I try to capture offbeat momen…
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“Bas Losekoot created photographs with a heightened sense of drama that freeze moments of movement,halting the frenetic pace of passing inhabitants in megacities. His project also explores how, counterintuitively, the commute can be a time for introspection and psychological divorce from reality.” - Ruby Goldberg / The New Yorker

“Exploring the dynamics of the streets. Capturing a moment in time that you can delve into and resonate with on a very human level. Losekoot asks thoughtful questions of society by holding up a mirror and inviting honest examination.” - Lyric Lewin / CNN Editions

 

 

 

This project includes photography of the cities: New York, São Paulo, Seoul, Mumbai, Hong Kong, London, Lagos, Istanbul and Mexico City.

Losekoot photographed one month in each of these cities, creating an uncanny reality. His use of light emphasises the capacity of photography to freeze movement, turning the mise-en-scène of urban dwellers into a fascinating choreography. By adding drama to the trivial, Losekoot is painting the theatre of the real life, where small gestures become theatrical events. The images show us details of everyday life that are normally would remain unseen.


Maps

In 2011, Bas Losekoot started a visual exploration of the consequences of growing population density. He selected nine fast growing megacities around the world that hold 20 million inhabitants, or will reach this number in the next couple of years. Some of these cities grow with 50 new inhabitants an hour. Who are these anonymous urban citizens in these cultural dynamic cities that seem to be heterogeneous? How do people react to each other in areas of overpopulation? What does this excessive growth do with our sense of personal space in the public domain?

(Infographic: The Endless City, London School of Economics and Political Science, Phaidon Press 2007)