“Orange City,” captures the dreamy orange glow enveloping the New York cityscape in June, 2023. This distinct hue was a consequence of the smoke emanating from numerous wildfires raging in Canada. The smoke had traveled all the way to the East Coast of the United States.

The deteriorating air quality prompted New York City authorities to issue a health advisory, warning residents to stay indoors. I ventured out to Gantry Plaza State Park on the East River to document the surreal, yet disturbingly beautiful, scenes of an apocalyptic atmosphere through my lens.

Orange City Videos

There are two different versions of the Orange City videos. The previous version features only music. The latest version is a video installation with two stereo speakers—a mother’s voiceover is heard from the left speaker, and a child’s voiceover is heard from the right. The voices express concerns for the Earth and future generations, with the child’s voice sometimes echoing, diverging from, or uniting with the mother’s. These parts are performed by the artist and her son, accompanied by background music.

Orange City Video Installation (voiceovers with 2 speakers) 
3 min 27 sec., ©2024, Video by January Yoon Cho 
Mother’s voice by January Yoon Cho & Child’s voice by William Cho
(Music: Sad Cinematic Piano – AShamaluevMusic. Music Link: link.ashamaluevmusic.com/fmdC)

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Orange City Video (without Voiceover) 
3 min 27 sec., ©2024, January Yoon Cho
(Music: Sad Cinematic Piano – AShamaluevMusic. Music Link: link.ashamaluevmusic.com/fmdC)

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Orange City Photo Series