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[a]CCCLXXVII, Amyn Nasser.
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[a]DCLXI, Amyn Nasser.
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[a]DCIV Concrete Jungle, Amyn Nasser.
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[a]CDLXXIX Caramel Gold.
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[a]MCDXXIII The Little House that fought demolition, Amyn Nasser.
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[a]LXX Rear Window, Amyn Nasser.
Voyeur Nocturne, Amyn Nasser
Luminous Vancouver.
At first glance, Amyn Nasser’s Voyeur Nocturne appears to be a series of architectural photography. But they are, in fact, much more. Nasser trained his lens upon Vancouver’s cityscape—sheer windows, hidden corners, and rooftop dwellings—to capture an intimate ode to the City of Glass.
“To me, every city is a woman,” says the photographer, speaking to his new show on display at the Lumas Vancouver gallery. “To me, every city is effeminate, every city dazzles with its colour and charm, and every city has a naughty playground.”
Nasser—who is from Zanzibar and attended grade school in Mombasa, Kenya—worked in Europe, the United States, and other parts of Canada before the West Coast beckoned. He cites one specific moment, as he was leaving a restaurant in Vancouver’s Coal Harbour, which struck an inspirational chord within him. “I was looking at the pavement and then I turned, looked up, and on my right, the city was looking back at me. My breath was taken; I could sense that the city was seducing me.” And thus, the idea for a body of work, Voyeur Nocturne, was born.
The title comes from nocturne, which is a photograph or musical piece for the night, and Nasser’s belief that “all of us are voyeurs whether we pretend we are not.” He began taking photos from his own balcony with a Nikon D2X before moving on to more remote vantage points such as the rooftop of the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre. The result is a body of work that captures the soul of Vancouver through its gentle radiance, each photo emanating a soft glow with playful glimpses inside apartments.
“There is a wonderful saying by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe that I always keep very close to my heart,” Nasser explains. “It goes: ‘The eye doesn’t see any shapes, it sees only what is differentiated through light and dark, or through colours.’ And that is exactly what I was looking for [with Voyeur Nocturne]—that luminous aspect of the City of Glass.”
Voyeur Nocturne will be on display at the Lumas Vancouver gallery from June 22 until July 2, 2017.
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