City Lust

“CITY LUST” is a timely dialogue between words and images about a crucial moment in our recent history: the apotheosis of globalization and its subsequent unraveling.

In this book, Charlie Koolhaas — artist, photographer, and writer — takes us to London, Guangzhou, Lagos, Dubai, and Houston, cities in which she has either lived or worked. Her personal and humorous accounts explore the rapid changes taking place in these vastly differing metropolises that are being united by the influences of global trade and the evolution of a shared global culture.

A captivating combination of photographic documentary and written testimony, “CITY LUST” portrays a global landscape that contradicts the current pessimism, revealing unexpected creativities, connections, and collective references that emerge despite huge global and economic divides.

“These accounts, rich with poignancy, tension and an ample dose of humour, expose the unexpected commonalities between seemingly disparate cultures, and a global landscape rich with possibilities and rapid change.”

– Wallpaper Magazine

“Through her photography, she chronicles some of the universal aesthetics in architecture, fashion and “in a kind of global culture that very much comes from America and then has its own versions everywhere in the world. That is almost like a style that allows us to understand and connect to each other. And at the same time, each place has these huge insurmountable differences,”

– WWD

“Rather than objective documentation, Koolhaas’s interventions carefully sift through clues in a human landscape and a multiculturalism that is more complex and deep-rooted than what the Western eye is willing to concede.”

– Domus Magazine

“Photos of perfume bottles, ugly buildings, uglier highways, and other subjects might not convey why some people lust for cities, but they certainly describe how cities accommodate so many people of different religions, ethnicities, and levels of income… It’s an ugly mess beautifully captured in Koolhaas’s images and words.”

– A Daily Dose of Architecture Books

“Koolhaas has a refreshingly honest and democratic eye that assesses both rich and poor, with a particular concern for the role of minorities in each country.”

-Photobook Journal

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