BRIAN MCKEE -URBANUS-


URBANUS

URBANUS, which means 'of the city' in Latin, is the third and final part of an overall body of work began in 2002 entitled DETRITUS. This third segment takes the idea of abandoned cities and self contained societies as its subject matter. My subject is mainly interior spaces of buildings that make up the structure of once vibrant and monumental cities and cultures.

Here I seek to create a view that hints toward the former splendor of these sites while at the same time reflecting on the contemporary beauty that time and decay have placed upon them. On another level URBANUS is also meant to reflect on the inevitable collapse of societies and cultures as each city I photographed was at one time an ideal example of human progress and urban living.

In the end though all that is left of any society or historic period is their detritus, these few elements that represent the past and which we, in our contemporary lives, reinterpret and reflect on for ourselves.

Brian McKee