Urban photography that captures life from Cairo to Beijing and Jakarta and beyond.

Since 2009, historian and photographer Philipp Sarasin has been traveling the globe for his visual research on major cities and megacities. He visited Los Angeles, London, Berlin, Cairo, Nairobi, Dubai, Mumbai, Beijing, Jakarta, Panama City, and more, driven by his search to represent the world in which we live. More than half of humanity lives in an urban environment—and the trend is only going up.

The Big City features some 120 of Sarasin’s color photographs that are marked by his analytical, perceptive eye. His focus is on urban spaces with all their signs embedded in the faceless architecture that shapes twenty-first-century cities. Sarasin’s shots are neither architectural photography in the narrow sense nor classic street photography. He follows the tradition of urban photography, inspired in particular by the concepts of artists such as Stephen Shore, Thomas Struth, and Jeff Wall.

An essay by architectural historian and curator Martino Stierli and an introduction by Philipp Sarasin supplement the full-page color plates in this striking volume.