PH21 Gallery - Time

Time is a central concept in our lives, yet no one has ever seen it. It is the measure of our everyday lives, but we rarely reflect on the fact that this fundamental organizer of our lives is also a human creation. Throughout history, humankind has developed countless tools to perfect the measurement of time, documenting the cycles in nature, the changes of days and seasons, and the changes of our own bodies as time passes by, which also confronts us with our own mortality. In urban spaces, clocks and bells help us track the passing of time so that we do not miss the train, our date, or are not late for work. It is peculiar that when we are having a good time, we feel that it passes faster, while when we are bored or having a bad time for some reason, it seems to pass very slowly. Depicting the passing of time in a still image has been a welcome challenge for photographers, as well as capturing a fleeting moment. Timelessness and eternity are also present in nature, human life, and our built environment.