City Lust

City Lust is the name of a fragrance that sociologist and photographer Charlie Koolhaas found in a Dubai perfumery wholesale showroom. It is also the starting point of an expedition that leads Koolhaas to a variety of places in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the US. In Lagos, Guangzhou, Dubai, London, and Huston, she explores the fast change that a globalised economy has forced upon these so-very-different metropolises. During extended stays in each place, Koolhaas took a vast number of photographs, many of them of striking intensity. She focuses her view not just on the increasing uniformity of cities around the world. Her key objective is to demonstrate the discrepancy between cultural standardisation and local diversity in the age of globalisation. The visual language of her new book City Lust is everyday photography, pure documentation and captivating observation. The second narrative is Koolhaas's equally fascinating and illuminating essay that brings together her own insight into global trade and its protagonists.