Why would an artist leave the greatest city in the world? Artist Alejandro Almanza Pereda lives out his own personal Escape from New York (1981)—the John Carpenter classic cult film—completing a big mission before time runs out. From his Hunter College MFA studio in Tribeca, Pereda recalls how the retro-future action film had a big impact on him as a kid growing up in Mexico. Set in a dystopian Manhattan that’s been turned into a prison, the film features anti-hero character Snake Plissken whose mission is to rescue the President before the time lapse bomb implanted in Plissken’s body explodes. Pereda sees today's New York City as an inaccessible prison of a different sort: “It's become a playground for really privileged people.” Pereda describes the disheartening, socially isolating environment that artists in New York now face. With exorbitant rents for barely adequate studio spaces, artists are forced to maximize their time by either making money or art, with little opportunity to partake in the larger creative community that attracted them to the city in the first place.
From the series, "New York Close Up"