Visual Studies / 031

Time, Memory & Absence

New York City

2021–2025

10 images

The City Behind the Wall

The City Behind the Wall examines temporary urban barriers as accidental frames, revealing hidden layers of a city undergoing constant transformation.

Financial District, New York City.

Cities are constantly being rebuilt, but the processes of change often create brief moments when hidden layers of the urban landscape become visible.

Gowanus, New York City.

Construction fences, plywood walls, security screens, and torn advertisements temporarily separate the public from spaces in transition.

Chelsea, New York City.

Through gaps, openings, and damaged surfaces, unexpected views appear: vacant lots awaiting development, old buildings exposed between structures, and fragments of the city that will soon disappear.

Red Hook, New York City

The City Behind the Wall began with these temporary windows.

Red Hook, New York City

Rather than documenting construction itself, the project focuses on fleeting views created during moments of urban change.

Hudson Yards, New York City.

These openings reveal spaces that exist only briefly before being transformed — a view across an empty lot before a new building rises, a glimpse of a forgotten structure before it is replaced, or a fragment of the city visible only until the wall closes and the landscape changes forever.

Red Hook, New York City.

The photographs consider the city as an incomplete archive, where absence is often made visible through the traces it leaves behind.

Red Hook, New York City

The walls surrounding redevelopment do not just conceal what is changing. They create a final opportunity to see what is about to disappear.

Red Hook, New York City

Through these accidental frames, the camera records the brief moments when past, present, and future occupy the same space before one version of the city gives way to another.