The Distance in Between is a collection of short stories documenting the behavior of and interactions between strangers in public spaces. The booklet is illustrated with photographs of downtown Chicago late at night, where human presence is missing but still tangible in the many empty office buildings, diners and on the city streets.
Published in support by the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture, and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, August 2005.
Selected excerpts below. Download publication as a pdf.
Thirty second subway romance I
A man on the train broke out in hysteric laughter after reading the front page headline of his newspaper, stating ‘groin pain’. Underneath the text was an image of a baseball player. The man giggled three times, then looked around him while pointing out the news to other people, who started smiling too. He laughed so hard his head bent over all the way onto his lap. Then he became silent and finished reading the article.
Thirty second subway romance III
From the moment he got on the crowded train a young blond man with a baseball hat was absorbed in a thick paperback classic novel. Standing by the sliding doors, he managed to keep reading when other people got on and off at various stops. At Clarkand Lake a business woman who had been standing a few feet away the entire ride told him it was a very good book when she passed him to get off the train.