These images are drawn from my impressions of large metropolitan areas. The density and vibrancy of such urban spaces excites me, as they are crowded with buildings, signs, transit, and people in seemingly endless directions. Ultimately I hope this work conveys some sense of the allure of such city mass and complexity. In a broader context, these photographs continue my interest in using multiple images to convey a unique perspective of time and place. There is serendipity inherent in my creative process of digitally layering and blending pictures that is intoxicating and curious. In an unexpected way, it takes me back to the wonder, discovery, and magic of the darkroom when I first began exploring photography some twenty years ago. Rather than yielding the singular, detailed imagery common to conventional photography, this is abstract, fragmentary picture making that puts a primacy on rhythm, color, pattern, and repetition. Such interpretive photographs are no longer picture perfect portals into reality, but now depict a multidimensional perspective that expands our notions of the photographic instant and reorders the appearance of photographic space. Peter Tonningsen received his BFA from San Francisco Art Institute and his MFA from San Jose University. He has been a professor at the Academy of Art in San Francisco for many years. Tonningsen was an artist in residence for Kala Art Institute in Berkeley in 2006. He has also been the recipient of the James D. Phelan Art Award in Photography, the Sustainable Arts Foundation Promise Grant, and the Hahnemühle Anniversary Collection award. His work has been included in multiple group and solo shows in galleries throughout California, Colorado, Nevada, and New York. His work is in the permanent collections of the Oakland Museum of California and the Prague House of Photography.