Queens Surface

Queens Surface is a photographic book project that captures the subtle details in the quality of light and architectural forms in the Queens of yesterday, before the onset of gentrification. Taken with a medium format camera, color negative images depict a reverence for an under-represented borough of New York City.

Residing in Queens during the early 2000’s, I was constantly struck by the sublimity of light in my daily activities of riding the subway or walking to get groceries. In this borough I noticed a layering of middle class Americana intermixed with an international populace in an urban environment. I felt that it was a forgotten place that would soon be overrun by developers and an expanding city population.

Scenes from various neighborhoods in Queens depict serene moments and initiate a feeling of a lost time. The photographs elicit a cinematic play on surface qualities and graphics in the forms of lines, blocks of color, volumes of shape, and reflections of interiors. Celebrating the humanity of a shrinking middle class, I document the Queens of yesterday, as it disappeared in renovation and development.