Savannah 531A

Cyanotype, Muslin, Pin ; 51” x 60”

 

Savannah welcomed me with her magnificent bridge, connecting Georgia and South Carolina in 2021. The view from my apartment window was breathtaking, and I found myself captivated by it each day. I began photographing the scene, documenting each moment when the light or atmosphere struck me with awe. It soon became a daily ritual for 2022, a visual diary of the changing sky.

 

Just a few months into the ritual, construction began directly in front of my apartment. Day by day, the building grew, steadily obstructing my once-open view of the Talmadge Memorial Bridge and Alexander Hall, where I spent countless hours studying photography and making prints other than the apartment. By mid-May, the bridge was completely obscured, replaced by the concrete facade of the new SCAD parking garage.

 

What began as an inspiring view of Savannah’s skyline turned into a grey, oppressive wall. Over 50 apartments shared this once stunning view, but it became nothing more than a collective memory by mid-2022. The experience prompted me to leave, as the rent kept rising and my sense of place turned from hopeful to suffocating.

 

This project, a hand-drawn fabric calendar featuring daily cyanotypes of the evolving view, represents more than just a blocked landscape—this is a reflection on the real estate hegemony I first experienced in Hong Kong. There, it’s common for a new building to appear seemingly overnight, robbing you of your connection to the outside world. Ironically, in this case, I was paying to block my own view—SCAD’s new parking garage was for students like me, yet it came at the cost of something priceless.

 

While the car park solved the parking problem for nearby academic buildings, it left me wondering—what did we truly sacrifice? The experience, the mental health of residents, the sense of connection to the city? As Savannah grows, I hope we can ask these questions and explore better solutions for urban planning that balance growth with preserving the unique and personal aspects of our shared spaces.