Sze Tsung Leong‘s new series Cities takes a look at the scale of human civilization — from a medieval town in Belgium to recently zoned developments in South Korea — in an attempt to help decipher the world we’ve built. Evolving from previous projects, Horizons, a study of landscapes, and History Images, an exploration of China’s rapidly changing urban areas, Cities explores the scale of civilization around the world. Leong photographs cities from high vantage points so the viewer can observe the abstract geometric patterns that comprise city zoning, and then steps closer to see details of daily life, like laundry hanging out to dry, commercial deliveries and spray-painted slogans.

As a collective series of photographs, they comprehensibly display how humanity has developed. But when each image is viewed individually, the photographs foil the socio-historical parallels and contrasts between different cities, offering a detailed observation of the world and revealing how each photograph distinguishes and differentiates each city’s complex structure of inhabitation.

Cities is on display at New York’s Yossi Milo Gallery from Feb. 17 through April 2. Further details are available at www.yossimilo.com. Additional images from Leong’s projects can be found on his website, www.szetsungleong.com.