illuminated cities at the centre of me

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“The Love With Which I Wash” ph. Harley Weir for Dazed and Confused 

A tanoorkhana in Kabul

Evgeni Zotov

USA. New York. 1998. Stuart Franklin

liu tao

Two tickets to…

Man Sings Under Khaju Bridge, Isfahan, Iran, 2016 by Jet Roderick

Art by Keita Morimoto

Of course, cities are physically identifiable sites that are often clearly separated from the space around them. They might be surrounded by walls that define their limits, or green belts in which building is prohibited or heavily controlled. Even when large suburban districts surround the city, these often have separate governance systems. Nonetheless, all cities depend on a much wider territory beyond these boundary markers. Some or all of the following need to be brought in from outside to support an urban centre: food, water, building materials (wood, stone etc), workers, traders and their goods, raw production materials (wool, cotton etc), energy (in the form of material to be consumed, such as oil or coal, or on cables connected to a production centre such as a power plant or wind farm). This is the case irrespective of whether the city concerned has a clear physical edge or not.

Trenton, New Jersey, ca. 1950

Italy in the 1980’s by Charles H. Traub.

Flower mural by Mona Caron

then the feeling moves on. it does not collapse; it is not whisked away. it simply moves on, like a train that stops at a small country station, stands for a while, and then continues out of sight. - michael cunningham, the hours

Ocean Vuong, "Thanksgiving 2006" from Night Sky with Exit Wounds