Gotham Handbook

Sophie Calle's *Gotham Handbook* is a conceptual installation combining gelatin silver prints, collages with text, and Diasec-mounted cibachrome photographs to document a series of social experiments conducted on the streets of New York City. Prompted by instructions from writer Paul Auster, Calle engaged strangers through acts of smiling, giving compliments, and distributing sandwiches and cigarettes, blurring the boundaries between art, literature, and everyday human interaction. The work reflects Calle's signature approach of merging photography and narrative text to examine themes of connection, vulnerability, and the performance of intimacy in public space.