City Sirens began with “She’s Taking It,” a single composition created for Have A Good One—a group showcase presented in partnership with WhiteBox and supporting sponsors. The exhibition centered on contemporary artists responding to city life, resilience, and personal narrative through their own visual language.
For this piece, I built the environment using original photography taken by Steve and myself, pulling from real streets, textures, and moments we’ve documented over time.
The backdrop was constructed from fragments of the city as it actually exists—layered, imperfect, and lived in. Documentation evolved into attitude and story.
To create it, I treated our photographs like raw material. Corners of storefronts, fragments of brick walls, bits of signage and shadow were layered together to construct a scene that felt like New York filtered through memory.
The city became both subject and collaborator.
After the showcase, I began pulling the original composition apart.
The characters inside “She’s Taking It” felt like they had more to say, so I gave them space to stand on their own.
Using the same photographic foundation, I built individual environments for each figure, expanding the story the city was already telling.