Photo gallery: Everyday is Babylon

Travel photography by Matthew Phipps

I have been continuously traveling for the last 15 years, playing with cameras. I walk everyday: sometimes two hours, sometimes six or eight hours, taking pictures of people and waiting for moments. I’ve lived in roughly 15 cities worldwide and have a vast collection of photos—more than I have even been able to see yet. The more time you spend on the street, the more interesting and out there things you will see. It is physically impossible for me to leave my camera at home.

These photos represent a snapshot of the last few years for me. From Greece, Italy and Morocco to Argentina and Colombia and more. This work is a part of my larger series, Everyday Is Babylon, which is about the extremities of the everyday world, all around the globe. The last two photos are from a series called La Playa. This series is about a corner in the heart of Bogotá.

The realities of the streets don’t lie. There is no partisanship when you're looking someone in the face, surrounded by their reality. The camera only tells what it sees, or what it chooses to see, but nothing more. Photography has shown me so many things in life that I would have never seen otherwise. It is, to me, a means of gathering consciousness.