Chronicle: CITY IN DUST

Portraits of Metropolis

Tom Pearson, 1992-present

Medium & Process: Polaroid prints

Dimensions: 3.5” × 4.25” each (individual and modular series grid layouts).

Water was running, children were running. You were running out of time.” — Siouxsie and the Banshees, Cities in Dust

Every surface craves dust, for dust is the flesh of time.
— Joseph Brodsky, Watermark

Chronicle is an ongoing series of un-manipulated Polaroid photographs capturing New York City from 1992 to the present. Exploring light, decay, and atmospheric erosion across urban topographies and portraits, each frame relies entirely on expired film stock, light leaks, and accidental exposures. The resulting prints allow time and chemistry to naturally overwrite the medium as an analog palimpsest of memory.