He is asking members of the public to take part in a different sort of mass-participation shoot. Magyar's signature is to create images using the same technology found at the finish line in athletics sprints. His style is to take thousands of photos in quick succession from a single point. Each only one pixel wide, they are lined up side by side in their thousands to form a composite strip of synthetic reality. The effect is to make four-square buildings disappear into thin horizontal lines, while people moving past show a level of distortion proportionate to their speed. The faster you are, the thinner you are. The fatter, the slower. A bit like life, in short. Here's a detail from Urban Flow # 529, Tokyo (digital silver gelatin print) - the full picture is too wide to post).
You have two chances to participate in Magyar’s latest experiment. On Saturday 17 July at 5pm he will photograph 300 camera-walkers in East Ham in east London. A week later in Birmingham there will be another walk for the camera. Register online here to take part.
The results will go on show in Birmingham on 1 August at the Library of Birmingham, where it will be shown alongside a print by the pioneering 19th-century photographer Eadweard Muybridge, drawn from the Library’s collection. In October the East Ham image will go on show at Stratford tube station in east London, close to the stadium where finish-line camera technology will be used for real at the 2012 Olympics.