To Think of Time

To Think of Time

“What strange phenomena we find in a great city, all we need do is stroll about with our eyes open,” said the French poet Charles Baudelaire in 1869. During the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution caused large urban centers to grow as never before. Artists were fascinated by tall steel buildings, dense traffic, and bustling crowds, where the city street transformed into a theater stage of anonymous actors.

Holger Mohaupt’s lens-based work portraits a poetic and ephemeral picture of New York. Working in colour and black and white, Holger creates a spontaneous, dynamic representation of a truly cinematic city in the spirit of Robert Frank and William Egglestone. ‘The City as Spectacle’ and Guy Debord’s idea of the dérive informed not only Holger’s photographs, but also his videowork ‘CROSSTOWN’, both on show at Sutherland Roper Architects in North Berwick. Filmed with a 360 camera in a single take, Holger cycled across Manhattan along 42nd Street on the US Independents Day creating an immersive live landscape portrait of New York City, which was shortlisted for the Scottish Landscape Awards 2025.
The exhibition ‘To Think of Time’ is trying to make sense of a city and a country in transition.