Photo Essays Photography and narrative walking together.
Travel Writing You go without knowing what you’re looking for.
Poetry Where meaning outlasts the sentence.
01 Five Chapters
My Biography

Bay Ridge to Flâneur. Five chapters of flux.

Read the story
Nook Nook woven coir doormat
02 One Doormat
Nook Nook Mats
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03 Dánlann
The Poetry Machine
Thousands of years.  One wall.
Flâneur 718

New York City — 2015–2022

A young girl in a white KN95 mask stands in a narrow gap between two adults seen from behind, one in a gray hooded sweatshirt under a dark corduroy jacket with a plaid scarf. Her freckled face is lit in profile as she looks past the crowd into shadow.
NEW YORK CITY
2015–2022

A city finding its balance between steam and streetlights, masks and momentum.

A man and a woman painted head to torso in black and white maze-like patterns kneel on the roof of a car whose paintwork carries the same design, riding past a shuttered storefront with a yellow awning while a crowd watches from the sidewalk.
A man in a black hooded coat holds a small child's hand at a crosswalk while a boy in a blue jacket drinks from a water bottle; a woman in an olive parka and another in a purple puffer coat walk nearby as a white van covered in graffiti blurs past behind them, in front of a shop window full of embroidered dresses and religious figurines.
A plywood barrier under a green-roofed construction scaffold has a large circular hole cut into it, framing a view of the sidewalk beyond where a man in a black puffer jacket walks bent forward and a hooded pedestrian carries a white box. Bicycles, an iron park fence and a white box truck fill the scene on either side of the wooden panel.
A bearded man in a black backpack, dark jacket and backwards cap stands on a snowy riverside promenade with the Brooklyn Bridge and a fog-obscured Manhattan skyline behind him. Snow clings to his shoulders and gloves, and a metal railing runs along the edge of the East River.
Inside a New York subway car, a woman in a black sweater sits on a blue bench seat beside the doors, her face lit by a narrow band of orange evening light while chrome handrails cut diagonally across the frame. At right, a hand holds a phone near the door; a yellow pole and a StreetEasy ad fill the left and upper edges.
A naked man wearing a black cowboy hat, sunglasses and sandals leans forward to film with a phone while an inflatable shark float hangs around his waist; across the street a silver body-painted person in swim goggles and shorts poses against a graffiti wall as a crowd passes a black-and-white mural and a hand-lettered FREE HUGS sign.
In near-total darkness, a bearded man in a black tank top holds a one dollar bill between his fingers as it burns, the flame rising in a tall yellow and blue spike. The firelight is the only illumination, catching his face, bare shoulder and the serial number still legible on the scorched note.
A New York City sanitation truck clad in mirrored panels reflects a rain-soaked crowd pressed against metal barricades along a Coney Island street, with reversed storefront signs and a police van visible in the reflection. In the foreground, spectators face away from the camera, one raising a phone to photograph the passing truck.
A man in a bulky olive-green coat rests his head face down on his folded arms at a laminate table inside a donut shop, wearing a black fingerless glove. An empty brown chair sits across from him, and framed coffee-themed artwork hangs on the beige wall above.
A young man with a large afro, wearing a bright multicolored windbreaker in red, blue, green and pink, stands in a crowded subway car playing an acoustic guitar and singing. Behind him a door sign reads 'Do not hold doors' and seated passengers, one in a face mask, look down at phones.
An older man in a brown jacket and black sweater stands in the open doorway of Nusraty Afghan Imports, holding a cigarette and looking directly at the camera, while a woman in a dark tweed coat carrying tote bags stands behind an iron fence on the stoop next door.
Seen from below on a dim elevated subway staircase, a person in a dark jacket with a faded pink and purple backpack climbs toward a landing. Ahead of them a woman in a black face mask pushes her hair back and turns to look back over her shoulder, lit by a small fluorescent fixture against red wooden walls.
On a crowded Manhattan sidewalk, a woman in a black fur-collared coat and grey scarf turns her head to look directly at the camera from behind a black lamppost, while a man in a surgical mask checks his phone in the right foreground and pedestrians in puffer jackets, including one in bright yellow Polo snow gear, fill the background.
Two costumed women stand on the wide wooden boardwalk at Coney Island: one in a hot pink tutu, tank top and wide flowered hat, the other in a blue-green sequined mermaid tail skirt checking her phone. Behind them crowds walk past Nathan's Famous, the Wonder Wheel signage and the red Parachute Jump under heavy grey clouds.
Two red aerial tram cabins lettered ROOSEVELT ISLAND hang from cables as they pass each other above the steel truss and traffic deck of the Queensboro Bridge, with overhead wires crossing a pale overcast sky.
Commuters walk along an elevated subway platform toward a covered stairway marked with a black and red sign reading Exit, Havemeyer Street & Broadway. A woman in a black top and light jeans turns to look back over her shoulder, while a man with bleached blond hair and a leather jacket walks ahead near a waiting silver train.
Black and white street photograph of an older man in a fedora, surgical mask and dark jacket leaning against a low stone wall on a sidewalk beneath an elevated train viaduct, turning to look toward the camera. Across the empty crosswalk, a traffic signal, a graffiti-covered utility box, storefronts and a bus sit in the shadow of the overpass.
A tightly compressed view down a narrow Manhattan lightwell, where a steel fire escape switchbacks up the full height of a dark brick tenement wall, flanked by a white paneled office facade on the left and a painted-over brick party wall with a single lit window on the right.
Seen through a small barred vent in a weathered green metal wall, a woman in a black Nike cap and white long-sleeve shirt stands on a Brooklyn sidewalk. Behind her are a parked white scooter, black garbage bags, bodega storefronts, parked cars and a Gates Ave street sign.
A boy rests his arms on the open rear window of a black Chevrolet SUV stopped in a city street, looking directly at the camera. Behind him are an elevated subway viaduct, a Sea Town Fish & Meat Market with an orange awning, a Live Poultry sign, and rows of flags on a utility pole.
A man in a light blue short-sleeve shirt and grey trousers walks toward the camera on a shaded sidewalk, white earbud cords running from his phone and a white plastic bag reading 'Have A Nice Day, Thank You' hanging from his wrist. Behind him a white sedan is parked at the curb beside a Muni-Meter, with sunlit tree canopy overhead and a white brick building to the right.
At night outside a subway entrance, a person in a knit cap seen from behind holds a glowing phone to their ear, blurred in the foreground. Behind them a masked man in a camouflage jacket leans against a graffiti-covered roll-down gate beside an MTA Planned Work poster announcing N and R track maintenance.
A man in a knit cap and dark jacket stands astride a long cargo bike on a sidewalk in front of a brick church with white stone arches and gold-painted doors, two bundled children seated behind him, while a person in an orange hooded jacket sits alone on the church steps to the right.
A steel eagle gargoyle projects from the corner of a pale brick Art Deco tower, set against clear blue sky, with a band of hubcap-motif brickwork and chevron patterns below and a green-tinted glass building to the right.
A tall vertical neon sign reading PEARL DINER glows red and blue on the side of a gray brick building in Lower Manhattan, with scaffolding, orange banners and a Chipotle storefront beyond it. Below, a man in a black puffer jacket and patterned hat walks past a white cargo van amid a line of cars with brake lights on.
A night street scene in Manhattan where a tall orange steam vent pipe ringed by a striped barricade releases a thick plume into the dark sky, while a person in a pale hooded parka crosses an empty avenue. The red neon J.G. Melon sign glows on a building at left and oncoming headlights shine far down the block.
In a nearly empty subway mezzanine, a woman in a blue knit sweater and face mask sits on the tiled floor against a white tiled wall, bent over a red Target bag and a black blanket. Above her, a large ceramic mosaic reads 96TH ST, flanked by stair handrails and fluorescent ceiling lights.
Seen through a storefront window, two teenagers stand at a red window counter inside Gray's Papaya. A boy in a black cap and gray hooded jacket looks down, while a girl in a dark jacket and jeans holds a partly eaten hot dog. Hand-lettered signs for papaya drink, pina colada and frankfurter specials cover the yellow tiled wall behind them.
A man in a dark jacket and tan trousers walks alone across a wide painted crosswalk at a Chinatown intersection, with a red traffic signal overhead, the blue steel Manhattan Bridge approach spanning the street behind him, and the Dai Sing Corp sign and graffiti-covered brick wall to the right.
A man in a black hooded jacket sits hunched forward on metal diamond-plate subway steps in bright midday sun, while a young man in a navy jacket and wide jeans with earbuds walks past on the sidewalk in front of a bodega window stocked with detergent and soda signs. A graffiti-covered red ATM booth stands at the right of the stairwell.
A woman in a cream fleece coat and grey sweatpants stands close to a brick wall covered in large black graffiti letters, a yellow-green tote bag on her arm as she looks down at her hands. Around the corner in bright sunlight, a second woman in a blue puffer jacket and red face mask waits at a crosswalk.
A gray-haired man in dark sunglasses, a white surgical mask and an olive green zip jacket stares directly at the camera in a shaft of hard sunlight, with a man in a blue fleece to his left, two other pedestrians behind, and Chinese-language restaurant signage and metal scaffolding poles above.
A young girl in a lavender tulle dress and glasses stands on a sidewalk with her arms stretched wide, a surgical mask pulled down under her chin and a purple flower clip in her hair. Behind her, an elevated train structure crosses the street, with a woman in black, a man in a tan suit, a fire hydrant and a Western Union sign in the background.
Black and white photo inside a subway car where a person with voluminous curly hair sleeps slumped forward in a dark jacket, head bowed toward their chest, as a hard diagonal band of sunlight cuts across the wall and seat beside them. Through the windows behind, trees and low rooftops pass on an elevated stretch of track.
A single figure in a maroon hooded parka trudges left to right through deep unplowed snow at a street corner, head down against the storm. Behind them a shuttered storefront covered in red and silver graffiti sits under a stone facade, with a green Marcus Garvey Boulevard sign, a One Way arrow, and an orange hand crosswalk signal on the traffic pole.
Black and white photograph of a street-level storefront with tall plate glass windows set between fluted stone columns. The left window reflects scaffolding and a partly visible sign reading FORM, while in the dark right window a single pale face appears suspended in the blackness above a planter of ferns. A small placard below reads MAIN SHUT-OFF VALVE, OPPOSITE THIS SIGN.
A narrow concrete alley between two whitewashed brick row houses, covered at the near end by a clear corrugated canopy with three hanging baskets of pink and red geraniums. At the far end stand a dark brown paneled garage door and a pale green wooden door with six glass panes.
A woman in profile wearing a black pleated face mask, eyes closed, with a narrow band of sunlight crossing her brow, cheek and nose while her dark hair falls into deep shadow. Behind her is a train door frame and a scratched glass window.
A person in a wide-brimmed straw hat, face mask, and red-and-black track jacket walks through a shaft of late afternoon sun at the mouth of a parking garage, beneath a sign reading NO VAN, CLEARANCE 6'7". A carved stone lion tops a pillar in the dark foreground, with two other pedestrians silhouetted at the frame edges.
An older man with a long white beard sits on stacked black milk crates and cases of Poland Spring water outside a bodega, one hand resting on a cane, looking up toward the camera. A taller man in a white waffle-knit shirt, jeans and dark glasses stands in the foreground with his back partly turned, gesturing as he speaks.
A woman stands alone in a dim museum lobby, silhouetted against a pale wall as she tilts her head back to look up at a massive suspended sculpture made of hundreds of lit bulbs on a clear tiered frame. Small text on the wall to her left reads The Samuel and Ronnie Heyman Lobby.
Shot from a shaded cafe interior looking out to a sunlit Brooklyn sidewalk, silhouetted heads and shoulders of seated diners fill the right and center of the frame while a woman in glasses turns and looks directly at the camera. Beyond them, a blue patio umbrella, a gray peaked-roof kiosk, a red hand crosswalk signal, topiary shrubs and a green real estate awning reading Sales Rentals Real Estate line the street.
A young man in glasses, a black KN95 mask, and a navy-and-white striped t-shirt stands with arms crossed against a subway door, one white wireless earbud visible, his body framed between two vertical stainless steel poles. To the left, an orange apartment-rental ad and the door marking R3 are visible, with another passenger's head at the bottom edge of the frame.
At night, a person in a knit hat, face mask, long dark coat and backpack crosses a wet city street, carrying a paper shopping bag while steam pours from a striped orange and white vent stack and a manhole beside the crosswalk.
A dark-haired woman looks toward the camera through a screen of asparagus fern and pink orchids at a flower stall, her hand raised to hold a stem aside. Behind her, a second woman in sunglasses stands out of focus among the blooms, and a wash of blurred yellow flowers fills the foreground.
An older bearded man in a khaki cap with a fabric neck flap and a brown T-shirt sits in a black plastic chair at the edge of a street, looking toward the camera. To his right a van covered in bright airbrushed graffiti fills the frame, and a blurred arm with a wristwatch passes close to the lens in the foreground.
A man in a tan fleece jacket and navy baseball cap carries a child on his hip along a wet Manhattan sidewalk; the child, in a white knit beanie and red jacket with black rain boots, rests their head on his shoulder with an arm around his neck. Cast-iron loft buildings, parked cars and a group of people standing near a stoop fill the background.
A large arched window set into a pale gray stucco wall, its dark tinted glass reflecting a sunlit yellow awning, a traffic signal and utility pole. Below the transom, glass doors read 'Bay Ridge Luxury' with fluorescent ceiling lights and a Lexus logo visible inside the showroom.
Seen through the bars of a fire escape or window guard, a large Lamar billboard on a rusted steel catwalk has been painted over entirely with red, white and black graffiti reading 'Larry's Back! Make Punk a Threat Again,' 'Defend ATL Forest' and 'No Cop Cities,' with a skull drawing at right. Behind it rise gray apartment blocks, tar rooftops and distant towers.
Looking straight up at the corner of a dark-clad high-rise whose banded glass and metal facade forms a chevron pattern converging on a V-shaped notch in the building's crown, set against a flat white overcast sky with a black silhouetted rooftop cutting into the upper right of the frame.
Looking up at the back of a green W 25 St street sign mounted on a black mast arm, its lettering reversed and visible through the sign, with glass and brick residential towers and a yellow traffic signal filling the frame.
A large window divided into panes by a rusted steel frame reflects a street scene: a red brick building, a black and white striped awning, hanging orange and yellow flowers, and two people in sunglasses and tan coats walking past. Inside the dark interior, a single warm filament bulb glows behind the glass.
A black and white photograph looking through a hazy, condensation-streaked shop window at serif lettering reading 'heRealReal' on the interior wall, with a dark diagonal band of shadow cutting across the upper right corner and faint reflections of street lamps and passing figures floating across the glass.
On a Chelsea sidewalk, two men sit on the stone steps of a boarded-up building: one in a dark hoodie and headphones crouched near a graffiti-tagged wall, the other in a camouflage jacket and grey knit cap looking directly at the camera. Down the block, pedestrians pass under a navy awning reading Townhouse Inn of Chelsea.
Shot from inside a deli, a woman in a black cardigan and leopard-print skirt holds the red doorframe as she steps out, a 35mm film camera hanging at her hip beside a black handbag. Behind her, pedestrians wait at a crosswalk under a TD Bank branch and a yellow-umbrella food cart.
A man in a dark jacket pushes an empty stroller across a wide crosswalk on an overcast day, while dozens of pairs of sneakers hang by their laces from a power line strung across the intersection above him. Brick apartment buildings and a tall industrial smokestack rise behind parked cars lining both sides of the street.
A man in a red cap and red track jacket pushes a shopping cart holding a large framed portrait printed in bright red across a marked crosswalk, with a corner taqueria and graffiti-covered roll gate behind him and a white GMC pickup parked at the curb.
Two young people walk away from the camera through a green plywood construction walkway, one with a Puerto Rican flag draped over her shoulders like a cape. Beyond the tunnel opening, traffic moves along a Manhattan avenue past a red and white 'Smoke Shop Electronics' sign and a yellow truck.
On a Brooklyn sidewalk, a man in a white cap and patterned grey sweatsuit looks down at his phone while a woman in a black niqab holds a toddler in camouflage on her hip; a second small child in matching camo stands beside them, and a silver minivan waits in the street behind.
Tight telephoto view of a glass office tower facade, where vertical white mullions and dark spandrel bands cut diagonally across gray-blue reflective panels. At the left edge, a section of deeper teal glass meets the corner of the building.
Seen from above, a man in a red hoodie stands at a folding table pressing a dark jacket inside a small alterations stall built into the space beneath a staircase, with a steam iron, metal kettles, spools of thread and a red hand-lettered Chinese sign behind him. To the left, a mirrored staircase wall reflects the legs and sneakers of someone walking on the level above.
A woman in glasses, a black coat and a thick blue and yellow plaid scarf walks past a cream-painted storefront in hard morning sunlight, holding a phone in one hand and a white shopping bag and slim case in the other, turning her head toward the camera. Diagonal shadows from the building's cornices cut across the wall behind her, and a NOTICE and store hours sign is taped inside the glass door.
Seen from a station platform, two subway car door windows frame seated passengers inside a train: a woman in a dark jacket with a green bag beside a person in a hooded coat and glasses, and in the next window a man in a short-sleeved shirt holding a phone. A tiled mosaic wall reflects across the glass, and black stickers below the windows read Do Not Lean on Door.
An older woman in black sits with a rolling walker in the deep shade of a recessed storefront doorway, a surgical mask pulled down under her chin. To her left a graffiti-covered metal roll gate carries a Siamese sprinkler connection sign and a green fire hydrant standpipe; to her right, a sunlit garden shop displays terracotta pots, flowers and plants on blue steel shelving.
A man in a Hawaiian shirt, turquoise shorts and sunglasses reclines in a folding lawn chair mounted on a low wheeled cart, holding a phone up to film himself as he rolls down a Brooklyn street. Behind metal barricades, a large crowd watches from the sidewalk in front of the IT'SUGAR storefront.
At a crowded evening protest, a man in a navy Infiniti Red Bull Racing cap and a beige KN95 mask turns to look toward a person in a red hooded cloak and white winged bonnet at the right edge of the frame. Behind them, blurred demonstrators in dark t-shirts hold signs in warm low-angle sunlight.
A bearded man in a red Cincinnati 'C' cap and red striped jersey sits astride a white folding electric bike in the street, turning to look back at the camera. Behind him a bodega window is covered with a chalk-style menu board advertising wraps, Philly cheesesteak and fresh juice, with an ICE cooler and a pharmacy shutter further down the block.
Upward view from a narrow Manhattan street: a modernist tower with rows of rounded concrete window bays rises into thick fog, its stone crown barely visible at the top. An ornate Art Deco brick facade with stepped buttresses fills the left frame, and a scaffold-wrapped building with fire escapes and white netting stands at right.
At night on a Tribeca sidewalk, a man in a gray long-sleeve shirt and a woman in a dark off-shoulder top stand pressed together in an embrace beside a blue parking payment kiosk, lit by a warm pool of streetlight. A woman in a dark coat walks past in the foreground at right, and a green WHITE ST sign and a red traffic signal glow further down the block.
A yellow pedestrian crossing signal mounted on a black pole displays a glowing red hand, set against the curved white steel ribs of the Oculus transit hub, with a glass office tower visible at the right edge under overcast sky.
A standing man's back in a pale white jacket and dark jeans fills the center of the frame, blocking most of a folding table where men are seated playing cards. To the right a player holds a fanned hand of playing cards, and a chain-link fence with green foliage rises behind the group.
A man in a dark winter coat, black knit cap and surgical mask stands alone on a polished floor, turning to look toward the camera while holding a small brown paper bag. Above him, carved limestone lettering reads SUBWAY 4 5 6 7 S.
Looking up from street level at a modern glass-and-steel skyscraper whose upper floors dissolve into low gray fog, flanked on the left by a stepped brown brick tower with bay windows and a pale masonry building, and on the right by the dark edge of a brick wall.
A woman in a green top with both hands on her head stands at a Queens crosswalk, facing a long tractor-trailer painted with giant Canada Dry cans and crashing waves that blocks the intersection of College Point Boulevard and 20 Avenue. Behind the truck sit a yellow clapboard house, tangled overhead wires, a green traffic light and a Truck Route sign.
A young woman with long brown hair stands in late golden sunlight against a green plywood construction wall covered in shredded poster remnants, wearing a black knotted top and black leggings with a thin crossbody strap. A hard-edged shadow cuts diagonally across her eyes and throws her silhouette onto the wall beside her.