By looking extremely closely or from afar, by forcing or allowing the lens to blur (a stance and a distance that is never quite appropriate to a literal rendering of the subject), Hidary examines an alternate meaning native to an object instead of the meaning that we impose on it by using or acknowledging an object mechanically (without thought or examination) in our lives. Whether Hidary's subject (a chair, a musical instrument, a street sign) is recognizable or not, the camera becomes the medium through which he reveals the mystery that is inherent in the banal. In this sense, his work challenges the limitations that physical form imposes on ordinary objects, and uses light to penetrate the nature of matter, and matter's meaning to us.

Hidary photographs subjects from his (and our) everyday environment. To underscore this point and keep it in our minds as we view the work, Hidary has named each piece in Series 11-17 after the location where each was shot. For instance, the first photograph in Series 17 is titled "Varick Street, NYC." Since the pictures look nothing like a street corner, sign, light or building, it is clear that the photographer is asking that we view the work with this formal contradiction in mind. We are not allowed to impose our experiences on the location; it becomes thoroughly new to us no matter how many times we have stood in that same place.

This is because abstraction allows us to see familiar objects in new ways. By eliminating an explicit subject (Series 11-20), the visual symbolism of objects that confines them to narrow, worn-out roles in our lives is removed. The object is reduced to its most basic elements and compositions - elements and compositions that we no longer perceive in the ordinary things that surround us because we are so familiar with them that we no longer look closely or actually see them. In Hidary's work, the ordinary object is freed from the associations and assumptions involuntarily triggered by its familiarity. A chair is freed from our assumptions about a chair and its function, and can be seen (literally) in a fresh light. An abstracted violin is freed from our everyday associations with a particular musical instrument and can be perceived anew. Thus, the work functions at the juncture where physical observation ends and intuition begins.

The power of Hidary's work lies in this ability to communicate with the eye in much the same way the musical note plays on the ear. The melodic surfaces that emerge from his abstract and semi-abstract images contain a rhythmic structure articulated through composition and combinations of color. This intersection of space, color and time reveals a vast interconnected world of seemingly disparate objects. Unseen connections exist among every thing that surrounds us. Hidary blurs the boundaries of individual perception and thereby keenly sharpens our insight.

For Hidary, this body of work is based not just on this impromptu formula (space x time x color = object) but it is also an exploration based on Einstein's well-known equation, E=mc2.. Einstein explored the most overlooked source of energy: matter. Contained within matter is the equivalent energy of its mass (m) multiplied by the speed of light (c) squared - a vast number and therefore a vast amount of energy. By obscuring the form with which these familiar pieces of matter express themselves (based on the laws of physics that guide their physical appearance) a dynamic energy is revealed which is no less than an expression of the equation.