Electronic recording phenomenon Moby makes his first public foray into photography with his new photo book Destroyed, out May 17th. Though it’s the first time Moby has published an art book of his photographic work, he’s been taking photographs since the age of ten, when his uncle, an accomplished photographer who worked for the New York Times, began gifting him his old photo equipment. Moby said his hesitation before now to publicly show his photos comes from his reluctance to be seen as another “dilettante” musician who assumes his musical success will translate into success in visual art. In fact, it was only after encouragement from his artist friends that he decided to publish the pictures in Destroyed.

 
The book and his new album, of the same title, are meant as companion works. Both were created concurrently, and both juxtapose the influence of the airless spaces of airports and hotel rooms with the fervent energy of crowded shows. Moby’s said his objective was to, “document the oddness of living on tour because, even though I’ve been touring for a long time, I don’t understand it at all.” Part of this oddness is the pseudo-familiar environments people create for themselves; each hotel room is a “simulacrum of familiarity,” yet it is nevertheless completely unfamiliar. The images move from gorgeous aerial shots taken from airplanes as he travels between cities to antiseptic hotel living spaces to crowd shots that highlight the distance between the performer and the excited viewers. Moby views his photos as a form of forensic study; he suggests that by looking at strange, empty spaces as subjects themselves, it’s possible to investigate what in our character compels us to build and maintain them.
 

Despite this underlying interest in human motivation, there is an intentional lack of human intimacy. When people are shown it is often through anonymous crowd shots taken at his packed shows. Where portraits are present in the book, the subjects do not connect with the camera, but are instead gazed upon: A flight attendant with her face obscured during a safety demonstration, a nun engrossed in her work, oblivious to the fact she is being photographed. When paired with the depictions of lifeless, constructed spaces, the overall effect is one of isolation and, perhaps, of loneliness. But Moby embraces this isolation and even seems comforted by it: “I have the option on tour to not be lonely, but I just love the isolation. When I look at the book, it’s the pictures with people in them that really freak me out. So, it’s the people that I find a bit terrifying. But the empty spaces, they’re empty and they’re calm.” Destroyed is Moby’s effort to convey the strangeness of his life on tour, and the result is an intriguing, thoughtful meditation on the experience of living in a world where the environment is constantly changing and consistently unfamiliar.

The exhibition will be on view at Clic Gallery at 255 Centre Street, May 12 – June 26.
Exhibitions and performances throughout Europe can be found on www.moby.com.

KEYWORDS: Clic Gallery, Moby, photography