There is something weirdly beautiful about photographer Satoki Nagata's series "Lights In Chicago." Haunting, black-and-white flash-lit images of humans who seem to be transitioning from people to ghosts. Transitory shapes flitting through their own lives within the artificial confines of the city — in this case Nagata's adopted home of Chicago.
A woman, head down, spears through the air as she moves past a window full of sewing machines on Michigan Avenue. In another shot, a woman in a check coat turns toward the photographer. She looks serene, almost angelic, as she merges with the structure behind her.
Nagata has intimated his "Lights In Chicago" project is an attempt to show the feelings of people and their lives in the city through photographic medium. Sounds good, but I feel he also hints at something a bit deeper in our souls. The cycle of human development and decline, life and death, chiming with the organic sprawl, growth and decay of cities.