For a good many years, Vienna was a second home. Every year I went back I lived in different places, experiencing a variety of scenery in the various “Besirks” or districts. In 2002, and also a few years later, I spent a lot of time in Favoriten, Vienna’s 10th district, often referred to as the working class district. I hung out at Reumannplatz, the end of the U1, the metro’s first line, and the district’s main square with shopping and restaurants; watching the colorful crowds go by and clandestinely snapping away as usual.

Eventually I realized how colorful the crowds really were in the way they were dressed in paisleys, florals, plaids and myriad other patterns, not to mention some of the wild combinations. There was so much to take in and record, that I had to switch to a low resolution setting on my small point-and-shoot digital camera just to be able to capture it all. That summer I was using a Fuji Finepix 601 Zoom. I also frequently visited the famous 1st District, the historical center, where the contrast was shocking. Everyone there was dressed in sober solid colors, usually darker tones.

Several years later, when I had an artist residency in Favoriten, I discovered that the opposite had occurred and that the working class was now sober solid clad and the upper strata were all in wild colors and patterns.