Photographer Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao has spent the past decade taking images of life in his adopted city of New York and expanding them into a unique collection. Assembled Realities, an exhibit of 40 of Liao's large-scale photos opens Wednesday at the Museum of the City of New York.

Liao, who is from Taiwan, came to New York at 22 to pursue his passion for photography. He creates large-scale panoramas by combining multiple exposures of the same location taken over the course of several hours, resulting in complex views that push the boundaries of traditional documentary photography. He utilizes digital technologies to transform all the photographs (anywhere from 14 to 2,000 frames) into a single image.

"My goal in using this process is to break away from the traditional photograph that shows one moment," he told China Daily. "This process allows me the freedom to select a moment that is made up of many moments to capture a view. When you walk down a street in New York you see more than just one thing or person. I can put in as many moments as I want."

Assembled Realities is a collection of Liao's work over the last 10 years that document life and events in New York's five boroughs, including the old Shea Stadium, the 72nd Street subway station in Manhattan and the Grand Concourse to Coney Island. "What I try to do is to make the image real in the eye of the viewer," he said.

Liao completed his high school education in Vancouver, Canada. Then he came to New York and obtained a bachelor's degree from the Pratt Institute and later a master of fine arts. His master's thesis that showed the Queens communities along the No 7 subway line from Flushing to Times Square eventually became a winner of a New York Times photo contest.

"Jeff Liao's personal take on New York City's five boroughs is more than a retrospective of a photographer's work. With his mixed interest in architecture and human interaction, it is a visual documentation of the city's immense energy and diversity on any given day," Susan Henshaw Jones, the Ronay Menschel director of the Museum of the City of New York, said in a statement.

New York is among the most photographed cities in the world. Yet Liao believes his work can still inspire some first-time thoughts and reflections.

paulwelitzkin@chinadailyusa.com