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
A woman in a black cardigan, dark skirt and grey headscarf with a fringed scarf walks along a wide city sidewalk past green trash cans, her full figure reflected in a large storefront window on the left side of the frame, the glass mirroring College Point Boulevard in College Point, Queens. Behind her, traffic, an orange construction barrel and distant pedestrians fill the avenue.

New York City

2023

A city looking through its own reflections,past the bars,suspended in the crowd.

An older man in a white knit cap, blue surgical mask and striped shirt leans against a polished granite building corner in shadow, looking at a phone in his hand. Across the frame in daylight, a man in a striped polo with a grey backpack walks away past a yellow bus and American flags strung over the sidewalk.
Seen through a narrow gap between two stone building columns, a person in a red puffer jacket and blue jeans stands under a striped umbrella on a wet sidewalk, looking down at a phone. Behind them, a lit lobby entrance shows the building number 90 above glass doors.
Black and white photo of two people seen from behind, seated close together on a bus shelter bench. One wears a dark soccer jersey printed SON and the number 7; the other wears a wide white sun hat and a light shirt, one arm around the first person's shoulder. Behind them, a dark SUV blurs past on the street and park trees fill the background through the shelter glass.
A woman in a black ribbed sweater and a black baseball cap embroidered with the words 'good luck babe' in orange script looks down at a lavender smartphone on a subway car. In the window behind her, the reflection of an older man in a pale green puffer jacket sits facing the other direction, beside a yellow advertisement.
Two women in black jackets walk past a metal roll-gate and plywood hoarding on a New York sidewalk, each holding a clear cup of bubble tea with a wide straw. The woman on the right wears a black cap and black face mask and carries a yellow Woops shopping bag and a monogrammed shoulder bag; the woman on the left wears a white N95 mask and a teal backpack, her face lit by low sun.
View up a wide concrete stairway toward a white ribbed vaulted ceiling with rounded beams and recessed strip lights, framed by glass panels and tubular steel handrails, with an orange wall panel and escalator edge at right.
A person in a dark hooded sweatshirt stands in silhouette against a tan brick and tile wall, head lowered toward a phone held in both hands, with a green nylon jacket draped over one arm and a large backpack on their back. To the left, a glass block window with white graffiti and a narrow mirrored column reflect a dim figure.
Looking down through thick green-painted vertical railings into a New York City subway entrance, where steel handrails descend past bright red brick-pattern tile walls. A white chalk-outline graffiti tag sits on the black painted wall above the tile, with a station sign partly visible at right.
A woman in a pink knit pom-pom hat and cream fleece coat carries a young girl on her back in a wrapped cloth sling, while balancing a Welch's Fruit Snacks box filled with candy and gum against her hip inside a subway car. The child, in a matching rose-colored pom hat, holds a phone close to her face as passengers stand and sit around them.
A motion-blurred photograph of a blonde woman in a light blue ruffled sleeveless top and white shorts stepping away from a dark vehicle at dusk, her hair swinging across her face, with a second woman in a matching blue top visible at right and out-of-focus street lights behind her.
An older man with a gray mustache stands in the doorway of a storefront, holding a lit cigarette in his ringed right hand with his left hand in his trouser pocket. He wears a brown tweed jacket over a black sweater vest and tie, beside a display window crowded with jewelry, brass figures and a sign reading Nusraty Afghan Imports, Inc.
Looking up at a modern skyscraper's glass curtain wall, where two stepped, angled facades flank a narrow recessed slot of darker glazing. Pale evening sky and neighboring buildings reflect across the panels, and a scatter of small warm ceiling lights and a horizontal amber strip glow from inside the upper floors.
Interior of a New York subway car photographed from a seated passenger's eye level: a person in blue jeans sits with legs crossed on a mustard-orange molded bench, next to a mint green hardshell suitcase with a tan leather handle. A blue plastic bag with red lettering sits in the lower right corner, and the photographer's grey trouser leg fills the left edge.
A man in a black cap, grey polo and mint green shorts sits sideways on a parked scooter outside a pizza shop, looking down at a phone mounted near the handlebars with a white earbud in his ear. Behind him a bearded man in a dark t-shirt and navy track pants stands on the sidewalk looking straight at the camera, while at the right edge an older grey-haired man in black holds a lit cigarette.
A low-angle view of a city sidewalk where sunlight cuts diagonally across the concrete slabs. At left, white and burgundy running shoes and a pink-trimmed sneaker stand near tan trousers; at right, a pink and purple running shoe and a dark loafer with a white sock rest at the edge of the light.
Black and white photograph looking through a large barbershop window where a client with curly white hair sits in a chair wearing a dark cape, while reflections of parked cars, street trees and a brick building overlay the glass. A barber pole decal, a pump bottle of conditioner and a wire basket of wrapped goods sit along the window ledge above corrugated metal siding.
A woman seen from behind wears a wide-brimmed gray straw hat with a tan woven bow, her auburn hair falling below the brim. Behind her, a large yellow patio umbrella fills the frame with the red script Topo Chico logo, and a pedestrian in pale blue jeans and black boots walks across the pavement at right.
Seen from above, a tailor in a red hooded sweatshirt bends over a black garment at a folding table, surrounded by an iron, a steel kettle and racks of thread spools on a pegboard. A mirrored column at left reflects the tiled floor and empty bentwood chairs.
A blond toddler in a blue-and-white striped shirt sits in a red plastic push car with a yellow face and blue wheels, fingers at his mouth, while an older boy in glasses and a black yarmulke sits on a red Radio Flyer tricycle just behind him. A man in a black suit with visible tzitzit grips the car's blue push handle at the right edge of the frame.
Close view of a seated man in white shirt and khaki pants on a subway bench, one hand gripping a black pen while the other steadies a small folded slip of paper with handwriting on it. Beside him, a second passenger in dark cargo pants and black sneakers sits against an orange seat and pale bench edge.
Two costumed parade performers on a Brooklyn street: a woman with a large red curly wig, white face paint under one eye and a purple bow tie reaching out with one arm, and a man in a red bandana with beaded dreadlocks holding up a torn parchment treasure map and a leather tricorn hat. Behind them, spectators stand along metal barricades in front of a fast food window and a funnel cake and cotton candy stand.
A tight telephoto view of Manhattan building backs: a pale painted brick tenement with a black zigzag fire escape and window air conditioners on the left, a narrow gap revealing a red terracotta facade with arched windows in the center, and a weathered brown brick wall with scarred stucco on the right.
Tight black and white portrait of a dark-haired woman looking just past the camera, her face lit softly from the left, with a blurred framed picture and pale wall behind her.
Black and white street photograph of an older man with white hair, glasses and a striped short-sleeve shirt walking across a street, flanked by a young woman in a floral skirt holding a phone and pushing her hair back and a woman in a white dress with sunglasses on her head. Behind them stand a newsstand kiosk and a large billboard, with concrete traffic barriers at the curb.
A view through the diamond-shaped opening of a dark chain link fence onto a sunlit building wall, where a fire escape casts a sharp lattice shadow across pale concrete. Most of the frame is taken up by out-of-focus fence wire in deep shadow, with a sliver of bright light catching one edge at right.
Black and white view across Manhattan rooftops, with a half dozen cylindrical wooden water towers on steel legs rising above tar roofs, skylights and brick parapets. A dense field of midrise buildings recedes into haze under a low, featureless overcast sky, with a tall apartment tower cropping the right edge of the frame.
Looking up from a narrow street, a black steel fire escape walkway crosses the top of the frame in silhouette, its slatted treads cut against a flat white sky. Below it sit a pale cast iron building with lit windows on the left, a blank concrete party wall in the center, and a stepped glass residential tower in the distance.
Shot through a window with visible glare and reflections, a lattice of metal scaffolding poles crosses a brick building facade, with a yellow natural gas pipe running horizontally along the upper right and a red light fixture clamped mid-frame.
A black and white night photograph of two neon signs in a storefront window. The upper sign reads BAD HABITS in block capitals inside a rounded rectangle; the lower sign reads Peep Show in script above a large downward arrow and a circle enclosing 25 cents.
A man in a white t-shirt and pink sweatpants walks along a sunlit strip of sidewalk carrying a paper shopping bag printed with the words Italian Dinner in Progress, his figure mirrored in the dark plate glass of the building beside him. At the left edge, two One Way signs, a stop sign, and a No Standing Anytime sign stack on a single pole in deep shade.
Two men in long black coats and wide-brimmed hats walk in opposite directions along the sidewalk in front of a red brick building with boarded-up arched windows, at the corner of Roebling Street and Lee Avenue. A pedestrian signal shows a red hand, and black trash bags sit at the base of the traffic pole.
A person in a white tank top and tan shorts walks away from the camera on a sunlit sidewalk with both arms flung overhead, holding a phone aloft in one hand. Behind a glass panel at left, an older man in a baseball cap stands with an 'I Love NY' shopping bag, while pedestrians, a utility pole, a crosswalk signal and a fire hydrant fill the street beyond.
Black and white photograph of a young woman with long dark hair sitting on stone steps outside a brick building, holding a lit cigarette in her raised right hand and exhaling. She wears a dark sleeveless top and a thin cross necklace, with tattoos on her forearm and upper arm, and a large decorative planter of trailing flowers sits on the step behind her.
Seen from behind, a woman in a sleeveless maroon top holds up a phone, its screen showing a yellow school bus that sits across the flooded street in front of her. Rain streaks the intersection, a bent metal bike rack lies toppled on the wet sidewalk, and cars wait at the crosswalk in the gray light.
A boy in a black T-shirt and olive shorts pushes off on a kick scooter along a sunlit sidewalk, while his mirrored double appears in a storefront window at left. Behind him a silver angular Tesla Cybertruck is parked at the curb, with shoppers, awnings and the steel elevated train structure beyond.
Black and white photograph of a mirrored glass office facade in New York City, its horizontal mullions slicing a reflected prewar apartment block into warped bands. A construction crane's lattice boom cuts diagonally across the reflection from upper left to lower right, ending in a hook block above the darker granite and glass of the building's lower floors.
A woman with shoulder-length brown hair, eyes lowered, exhales a thick plume of smoke while holding a lit cigarette at chest height. She wears a red and black striped tank top with an embroidered cherry patch, and a blurred white car and tree fill the dim background.
An oval mirror hangs on an orange painted brick wall, reflecting a dim bar interior with a pressed tin ceiling, framed pictures and a chandelier. A lampshade and an iron horseshoe hang on the wall nearby, while blurred dark red shapes drift across the foreground.
A dense crowd fills a street at Union Square in New York City during an abortion rights protest, with a woman in a red cloak and white bonnet in the right foreground and a blonde woman seated on someone's shoulders raising a hand-lettered sign reading FUCK SCOTUS above the trees.
A plate glass window reflects a painted staircase with pale blue turned balusters and a diagonal handrail, layered over the interior of a lobby. Behind the glass, a man in a dark coat stands in a doorway near a tan paneled wall, with a brushed metal call panel and a sunlit white wall at right.
Black and white photograph of a woman in a light headscarf and geometric-print blouse standing behind a plate glass storefront, one hand raised to her mouth, holding a pale handbag. Reversed lettering reading BARBER and CUT floats across the glass along with the reflection of a man in a short-sleeved shirt looking down.
Two women in blue body paint, shell bras and glitter walk past a graffiti-covered box truck under a wave-patterned awning at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade, one holding a pink paper parasol, with a yellow Eldorado bumper car sign reading 'Bump Your Ass Off' behind them.
At dusk on a city street, two men seen from behind in a dark polo shirt and a pale blue plaid shirt flank a woman with glasses who is looking down. Behind them a parked car's open window frames the silhouette of a person sitting inside.
Looking up at the corner of a skyscraper clad in a staggered checkerboard of dark panels and blue reflective glass, its edge cutting diagonally across a pale sky. A commercial jet, seen from below with wings spread, flies in the open sky to the right.
A woman in a black puffer coat sleeps upright on a subway seat, eyes closed and hands folded over a bright green shopping bag in her lap. Her face is reflected in the dark train window beside her, with a red seat edge visible at the right.
A gilded cast-iron sign reading SVBWAY ENTRANCE, with a V in place of the U, crowns a railing at the top of a subway stair inside the vaulted stone arcade of the David N. Dinkins Municipal Building. Through the archway beyond, daylight falls on a white office tower, a globe lamp on a green bracket, and a small glass guard booth.
Black and white street photograph of a Manhattan corner: at left a young man in a light untucked shirt stares down at his phone as a city bus passes behind him, while at right, beyond a white vertical pole dividing the frame, a couple stand locked in an embrace, her hand on his shoulder beneath a patterned cap.
A woman in a white blouse sits against a tinted green storefront window at night, raising a cigarette to her lips, her face lit yellow by overhead light. Her reflection repeats in the glass to the right, while behind her a dark sidewalk recedes toward fire escapes and distant string lights.
A woman in a grey Adidas cap and green shirt sits beside a white cooler filled with soda cans and a yellow sports drink in a tiled subway station, holding a bottle up to a young girl carried in a cloth sling on her back. Commuters climb a dim staircase behind them.
A torn piece of brown corrugated cardboard rests on a gray concrete curb, hand-lettered in marker with Japanese characters reading arigatou gozaimasu above the words Thank you, Seamus, plus Satsuki Japan and the name Tomoko. A blue and white Camel Blue cigarette pack leans against the lower left edge of the cardboard.
Black and white photograph of a bearded man with shoulder-length curly hair and glasses standing beside a dark metal gate in a New York subway station, wearing a V-neck t-shirt and backpack straps. Behind him a lit sign reads No entry above a row of exit turnstile bars.
Black and white photograph of a large round convex mirror mounted in a bookstore, reflecting a masked person holding a camera to their face, surrounded by bookshelves, ceiling lights and a second figure walking past. To the right of the mirror, a window shows blurred street scaffolding and sidewalk.
A young woman with dark hair, sunglasses pushed up on her head and a black face mask, leans against a train window as sunlight falls across her eyes and cheek. Through the glass, a station platform with a painted yellow safety stripe is visible, and other masked passengers sit in shadow behind her.
From inside a dark concrete parking structure, a large rectangular opening frames a bright view of a brick apartment block, mid-rise towers, street trees and parked cars below. A metal stair railing and a fluorescent light fixture sit in the shadowed interior at right.
Viewed through a car windshield with the dark roofline framing the top of the frame, a young man in a white hooded sweatshirt is held by a uniformed NYPD officer on a tree-lined street, while another officer stands blurred in the foreground at right and a marked police car with lit taillight and roof lights fills the lower left. A red brick rowhouse with graffiti and a no-parking sign line the background.
Two young women stand side by side in a subway car in front of closed doors, one in a tan baseball cap and wire-rimmed glasses talking with her hand raised, the other in an embroidered purple beret holding a phone in a white case and looking off to the side.
At dusk, a dark-sleeved arm with a black digital watch reaches up to pick at stickers on a metal traffic signal pole layered with handbills, including a taped poster reading SEX PARTY and a comedy show lineup. Behind it, a yellow pedestrian signal arm, blurred red and green traffic lights, and dim city buildings fill the blue evening sky.
Viewed through a gap between a corrugated metal storefront and a black iron railing, a man in a red baseball cap and blue sleeveless shirt stands on a sunlit sidewalk, his body divided into sections by the rungs of a tall aluminum ladder. Behind him a parked minivan and a dark sedan sit along the curb beside beige industrial buildings.
On a Manhattan Chinatown sidewalk, a man in a red polo shirt stands on a stairway behind a steel handrail with his back to the camera, holding a lit cigarette over the rail. Below and to the right, an older man with white hair in a pale T-shirt walks past shuttered storefronts under blue and graffiti-tagged awnings.
A partially raised blue-gray corrugated security shutter cuts diagonally across the frame, hiding everything above the waist of a man in jeans and worn sneakers who steps out from beneath it. To the right, an aluminum extension ladder leans against a painted concrete wall near a white downspout and an orange extension cord on the sidewalk.
At night on a city sidewalk, a young person in an olive Carhartt hooded jacket pushes their glasses up while looking down, blurred in the foreground. Behind them a bald man in dark clothing meets the camera's gaze directly, and at right a woman in a dark zip-up hoodie looks at her phone, with a brightly lit sneaker store window and an illuminated sign reading part of the word 'DOCKED' in the background.
A thick plume of white steam rises around the rear of a black dump truck parked on a narrow Manhattan street, while a worker in a yellow high-visibility jacket and hard hat stands beside it holding a radio. A second worker in a yellow vest and ear-protection helmet walks across the asphalt toward a utility truck strung with yellow caution tape.
On a city sidewalk beside a black wrought iron fence and granite wall, a woman in a black and white striped sweater rests her hand on the head of a young boy in a blue T-shirt printed with a shark, jellyfish and anglerfish, while a man behind them looks down at his phone. Shopping bags of groceries and flowers sit on the pavement next to them, with a crosswalk and a yellow bus visible down the block.
Close-up of a seated man's clasped hands resting on his knees, wearing a gold band on one ring finger and a steel bracelet watch on the left wrist. He wears a navy sweatshirt over a black and white patterned shirt and dark gray textured trousers, with another passenger's tan sleeve at the left edge.
Black and white street photograph looking through crossed metal scaffolding poles at a parked van and car; a driver inside holds up a smartphone, and a newspaper vending box with Chinese characters stands between the vehicles beside a parked bicycle saddle and wheel.
A young blonde girl in a pale yellow t-shirt and light blue shorts sits on an orange subway seat, head bowed, turning a small plastic horse toy in her hands. Standing passengers with backpacks frame her on both sides, blurred in the foreground.
Looking up at a dark ceiling filled with rows of wide, shallow dome light fixtures, each with a bare bulb at its center, glowing in warm white, amber and faintly pink tones. The grid recedes toward the upper right and is cut off at the lower right by the dark diagonal edge of a concrete wall and a wood-topped railing.
A man in a light blue short-sleeved shirt and surgical mask stands in profile outside a storefront, looking down at a phone while holding a black cap in his other hand. Behind him, late sun throws long shadows of steel sidewalk bollards across a painted white brick wall.
Inside a city bus, a young girl in pink rests her head on the shoulder of a woman with a dark ponytail, looking back toward the camera while sunlight falls through the window behind them. A standing passenger in a navy vest grips a pole near the front, and utility poles and green trees pass outside.
A security booth with dark metal framing and large glass panes reflects a man in a navy puffer jacket walking past a concrete ramp, while at right another man in a navy puffer jacket stands behind a low concrete barrier. Beyond them rise raw concrete columns fitted with floodlights, solar panels and a dome camera.
Viewed through a narrow vertical gap between a stone column and a dark door frame, a man in a white uniform shirt with an embroidered security patch bends over a small white desk, pen in hand, writing in an open logbook in a dim entryway.
A woman in a gray headscarf and long black cardigan looks back at her own reflection in a storefront window, which also mirrors College Point Boulevard in College Point, Queens; an ordinary New York City street scene fills the background.
On a subway bench, a child in a navy knit pom hat and pale blue puffer coat sleeps upright holding a blue stuffed animal, while a bearded man in glasses on the left and a man in a Supreme cap with a white earbud on the right both look down at their phones.
A rusted steel-framed cafe window in which two men in white shirts appear twice, their reflections repeated across adjacent panes alongside a black and white striped awning, a red brick facade, and hanging baskets of orange and yellow flowers. Behind the glass a stainless steel Fetco coffee dispenser and a glowing filament bulb are visible inside the shop.
Overhead view of a seated person on a subway holding open a poetry anthology, with pages showing poems by Mark Nepo and Tracy K. Smith; their bare thigh carries a 'STAY LOST' tattoo and their hand bears a small looped symbol. Across the aisle, a pair of red, white and blue sneakers rests on the train floor.
Two small children in puffy winter coats, one lavender and one pale mint with a fur-trimmed hood, sit pressed against each other on a blue subway bench while a woman beside them holds a plastic cup of iced drink with a blue straw to her mouth, one arm around the children.
A bearded man in glasses, a dark zip jacket, dark pants and white sneakers stands facing the camera on a sidewalk, gripping his backpack straps, in front of a corrugated metal shutter painted with the words 'Fight, Flight, or...' above giant block letters spelling 'OBSERVE.' The photograph is black and white.
A high-rise apartment tower with rows of cantilevered white concrete balconies rises behind a gray steel utility pole and crossing power lines, with the patterned brick wall of an older building at left against a pale overcast sky.
A black and white photograph of a dense crowd gathered on the sidewalk outside the Joyce Theater in Manhattan, standing beneath the curved Art Deco marquee with its large block letters and rows of bulbs. Two open doorways lead inside, flanked by posters reading Kids Dance, while a bicycle leans at the right edge of the frame.
Black and white street photograph looking up through dark scaffolding pipes that cross the frame in vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines, framing a modern tower with alternating stone piers and dark glass windows, with an older brick building at left and a curved streetlight at right.
Black and white view from above of the McGraw-Hill Building in Midtown Manhattan, its rooftop sign wrapped in scaffolding and water tanks behind it, with hazy Hell's Kitchen towers receding into the distance at right.