Photos you can hear Christopher Anderson
Christopher Anderson is renowned for his vivid, emotionally charged photographs—images that seem to pulse with life, colour, and intimacy. Anderson’s work has spanned conflict zones, presidential campaigns, and tender, domestic moments, yet always retains a distinctly poetic sensibility.
As we just launch a new shirt adorned with an image Anderson made in New York City,We had a quick chat with him about it. (FYI. It’s drawn from an upcoming book that will be released later this year—though for now, the project remains tightly under wraps.)
S/B: Do you remember your first experience of New York?
CA: Perfectly. The country boy coming to the big city. It was everything that West Texas was not. The first time I had a deep sense of belonging. I had found my place. Visual overload that, mixed with the big sky colors of Texas that shaped my sensibility to light and color early on, New York was a transformational aesthetic.
S/B: Tell us about the day you made this image
CA: I was in East New York, searching for images for an assignment for New York Magazine. I rounded a corner to cross the street and came upon this scene. It was so fresh that I felt I could hear the sound of impact when I looked at it. The photograph, for me, has a sound when I look at it.
S/B: Colour plays such a significant role in your images, is that what draws you to make an image?
CA: Photographing is an impulsive act for me. I react to things that strike me. I don’t think of it as being consciously the colors, but I do recognize that there is a certain color that ends up in the images. So I must be drawn to the color. But in the moment, it feels like being drawn to many things at once and I can’t separate them
S/B: You've lived outside of the US for quite some time, does it still feel like home when you return?
CA: New York still feels like my spiritual home, even though I have now adopted Paris. My most formative years were spent there, It is where I first explored freedom and became an adult. I started my own family there.