Colloquially, “hidden in plain sight” means something right before you that you don’t see, because it is too obvious or too common to pay attention to. Or you’ve seen it a thousand times. Jay Bridges makes us pay attention to Kingston in new ways in this series that highlights ordinary but iconic landmarks. Bridges’s photography derives from a tradition once known as the “new topographics” that was influenced not by fine arts photography but pop, minimal and conceptual art and that documented the new industrial landscape, the suburbs, and the generic built environment. Bridges adheres to an ethics of presentation that is plain and honest, with nothing added of artistic flourish or the photographer’s subjectivity. Each image is treated similarly: carefully composed, shot frontally, and generally symmetrically, with an even lighting if by day or with the lighting the building itself produces if by night. These are formal devices to make us attend to the subject in new ways but also to categorize the buildings into types. These photographs are not simply snapshots: Bridges may wait months for the proper lighting conditions to capture the precise image with his large and medium format cameras. Valuing the vernacular, Bridges patiently waits to bring Kingston’s hidden gems into view.