Brian Pearson’s spare black and white cityscapes and desert views reduce the environment to dark, minimalist compositions. The images, on view at Robin Rice Gallery in New York City in a show opening today and running until April 23, were made mostly in Tokyo and the Mojave desert, locations that don’t easily invite comparison. But rather than focusing on the bustle of the city, Pearson records moments where life intercedes—a dragonfly scuttles under a wall in a Chanel boutique, a bird lands on the Jinbocho Theater, pedestrians in silhouette cross the glowing floor of the Tokyo International Forum. Or he looks up, framing fragments of luxury buildings on Omotesando, the avenue sometimes called Tokyo’s Champs-Elysees. Elsewhere, wind blows through a chain link fence at a dusty airport in the Mojave. Together, Pearson’s images find a calm visual connection between the crowded city and the empty desert.

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