I love New York

This series was shot entirely on a cell phone over three days in the summer of 2022, during my first visit to New York City. Before arriving, my imagination was filled with postcard icons: skyscrapers, historic architecture, and dazzling lights. But once there, it was not the skyline that held my attention—it was the people. In a place like Manhattan, where millions live and thousands more visit each day, it’s easy for the individual to be overshadowed by the scale of the city itself. In Times Square, at the Met, and along busy sidewalks, I watched visitors flock to photograph monuments and neon signs. I turned my lens the other way. I began to photograph the photographers, the wanderers, the families, the strangers flowing in every direction. Who are they? Where have they come from, and where are they going? What stories do they carry? My work is driven by these questions. By placing people at the focal point—lifting them from the background to the foreground—I seek to honor the human texture of the city. It is people, after all, who animate the streets, give meaning to the landmarks, and write the living history of a place. These photos are my humble reminder: behind every skyline, there are stories waiting to be seen.