Alone Together: A deep look at the loneliness of global cities as it appears during the blue hour

If you live or have ever lived in a large, global metropole you can certainly relate to London-based photographer Aristotle Roufanis’ project ‘Alone Together’ which takes a unique approach in capturing the loneliness that festers in a global city. An ongoing photographic project, Roufanis takes this phenomenon of social alienation in urban centres as a starting point, and adds a positive, optimistic twist to it. Photos are captured in a way that only tiny, individual apartment lights are visible in some of our favorite cities in the world including London, Paris, Miami and Athens. 

“Hardly recognisable in the dark, some of the world’s most famous metropoles are transformed into sprawling canvases of anonymity, where countless people have decided to make their home but hardly connect to each other.”

“The bigger the city, the lonelier we feel,” comments Aristotle Roufanis, who recently moved to London from another bustling urban centre, namely his hometown of Athens, Greece. “In a big city, we are very efficient in covering all our consumerist needs, but we forget our need for companionship. It is important for people to understand that although lonely, they are not alone. Individuality does not equal to alienation.” Roufanis does an amazing job of drawing a parallel between the singular lights in an apartment window to an individual stuck in a dark void of a detached world. Photos are taken in between the hours of dusk and dawn, shifting the spotlight from public to private which enables the eye to focus on only the singular lights in a building rather than iconic landmarks like the Eiffel Tower. 

Roufanis uses a technique of super high-resolution photography complemented by digital editing that can take up to ONE MONTH for each photo. Presented in exhibition context, images are showcased in extremely high-resolution prints to highlight as much detail as possible to the naked eye. The resolution of the images is so high that you can delight your inner voyeur by spying on individuals standing in the windows contemplating the city outside or doing everyday things in their home.

ABOUT ARISTOTLE ROUFANIS

Aristotle Roufanis is a London-based art photographer whose work focuses on patterns, textures and human interactions defined by the condition of urban architecture. An active photographer since his early 20’s, Aristotle Roufanis is a self-taught artist, who has mastered his medium through several personal photographic projects. In 2016 he has participated in Scope Art Fair – Miami Beach and with a solo show in Fotofever – Paris; in the same year, his work exhibited at the Summer Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts sold out before the show’s public opening. In 2017 he exhibited at Scope in Basel during Art Basel 2017 and he is scheduled to exhibit at the prestigious Zona Maco in Mexico City as well as other art events throughout the world. Aristotle Roufanis’ work is part of esteemed private collections in London, Paris, Milan, Miami, New York and Mexico City.

Roufanis is a civil engineering graduate and has always been fascinated by architecture, and particularly the patterns and sheer scale of large cities. Interested in the many contrasts and the amount of information one can collect through reading an urban landscape, the artist has often turned his lens to urban architecture in the past. Alone Together combines several themes that have appeared in Aristotle Roufanis’s work so far, but merges them in a very skillful and refined way.