Simon Raion’s photographs seduce the viewers’ gaze while, at the same time, distancing us (even as the figures in the frame fluctuate between succumbing to and fighting against the frame). Raion offers us oddly stagnant scenes that appear to be overcrowded sweatshops, isolation wards, shantytowns, cluttered dorm rooms, questionable massage parlors, or industrial wastes.

But we have the uncomfortable sensation that we are being confronted by the ubiquitous but unseen Other in a Sartrean universe, which is our own. An Other who refuses to be color-coded into gender-specific hues or interactions. How many pink-garbed people can pile into a pink car going nowhere, in images that partake equally of Edward Hopper, Hieronymus Bosch and Marx (Brothers)”. - Dr. Linda C. Ehrlich