This image was taken when I was on tour in Chicago in 2008 and suffering from my usual crippling insomnia. Sitting at the window of the hotel at 4am, staring out at the city, I was filled with a strange sense of comfort. The scene was like a perfect tableau from the science-fiction movies I used to watch in the 70s. Its composition is incredibly simple: you can see about 50 miles to the horizon, and on every last inch of land, bright lights illuminate desolate streets.
Anthropologically, it poses the question: why, as a species, are we compelled to build in right angles? If you walk through a forest, everything is twisting and turning, so it seems odd that the human contribution to the natural order has been the right angle.
I only took one photograph, which is asinine, seeing as there's no reason not to take lots of images with a digital camera. But I still shoot like someone who develops their own film. I got into photography when I was 10 and it used to take me ages to figure out what I wanted to shoot, since each image represented such an investment, both in terms of material costs and the amount of time it would take to process.
Music and photography both have the capacity to communicate deep emotions effortlessly. I work on music for a long time, taking months to finish each song. In some ways, photography is the exact opposite: you're capturing the immediate; it's a spontaneous documentation of something that will never exist again.
CV
Born: New York, 1965.
Studied: Philosophy and photography at Purchase College, State University of New York.
Influences: Sally Mann, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Wolfgang Tillmans.
High point: I expected my friends in the art world to suggest I stick to music, but they were really supportive.
Low point: When I lost 7,000 pictures while backing up my hard drive.
? Destroyed, Moby's new album, is out now.
Rozonda Thomas Rachel Weisz Miranda Kerr Sarah Shahi Anna Paquin
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