A Lungful of Air examines the visual language of smoking, where each exhaled breath becomes a marker in an unspoken dialogue between private ritual and public performance. In this sequence of pictures, the act of smoking emerges as both rebellion and surrender—a claiming of personal space within the city’s relentless rhythm.
The series maps smoking’s psychological terrain through its visual traces. Smoke itself operates as a living symbol, marking boundaries between inside and outside, between controlled breath and wild air. These ephemeral boundaries blur and shift, creating temporary zones where private acts become public statements. In each image, the physical substance of smoke mirrors internal states—rising, dispersing, lingering, dissolving.
At its core, A Lungful of Air reveals how smoking functions as a form of urban mark-making, where each breath drawn and released inscribes meaning onto city spaces. The images capture these acts of inscription, showing how individuals use smoke to carve out moments of pause within the urban flow, transforming ordinary corners of the city into sites of personal ritual. Through this lens, the series considers how these small acts of defiance and surrender shape both the physical and psychological landscapes of urban life.
