Photoville

NYC Parks

NYC Parks

NYC Parks is the steward of more than 30,000 acres of land — 14 percent of New York City — including more than 5,000 individual properties ranging from Coney Island Beach and Central Park to community gardens  and Greenstreets. We operate more than 800 athletic fields and nearly 1,000 playgrounds, 1,800 basketball courts, 550 tennis courts, 65 public pools, 51 recreational facilities, 15 nature centers, 14 golf courses, and 14 miles of beaches. We care for 1,200 monuments and 23 historic house museums. We look after 600,000 street trees, and two million more in parks. We are New York City’s principal providers of recreational and athletic facilities and programs. We are home to free concerts, world-class sports events, and cultural festivals.

Current Exhibitions Supported by NYC Parks

At My Window. My Staten Island

South Beach Promenade
 on show

The Alice Austen House education team worked with PS 60, The Alice Austen School 4th Grade students on a photographic unit inspired by Alice Austen and their own cultural heritage.

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Brady’s Pond

Alice Austen House
 on show

“Brady’s Pond” is an ongoing collection of images made from recurring walks through Staten Island’s sliver of public access land along the pond’s northeast shore.

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Brought from Home

Travers Park
 on show

Brought from Home is a two-part photo-documentary project on immigration and the complexities and symbolism of never truly leaving home.

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Far Apart – Revelation and Refuge in an Urban Green Space

Alice Austen House
 on show

“Far Apart” is a photographic love letter to Shore Road Park, a narrow strip of playgrounds, wooded paths, and ball fields in Brooklyn that overlooks Staten Island and the Verrazano Narrows, the waterway that leads into New York Harbor.

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FLY BALL: Vintage Snapshots of Black Athletes by Twin-Brother Photographers, Morgan & Marvin Smith

St. Nicholas Park – 132nd Street and 139th Street Jackie Robinson Park
 on show

Of the thousands of photographs and prints by Morgan and Marvin Smith in the Schomburg Center’s collections, this exhibition highlights a brief survey of sports snapshots from the 1930s–1950s. From American Negro League baseball team players sliding into home plate to collegiate star-athlete footballers dodging tackles across the field, these photographs document a pivotal era in American sports history.

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From the Streets to the Heart

Corporal John A. Seravalli Playground
 on show

The project “From the streets to the heart,” created by artist Ernst Coppejans, documents the lives of homeless LGBTQIA+ youth in NYC, aiming to raise awareness about their struggles. Through poignant visuals and personal interviews, the project showcases their resilience and challenges. As LGBTQIA+ rights face unprecedented threats, it serves as a call to action. Visit fromthestreetstotheheart.com for more.

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Gestalten

Bella Abzug Park
 on show

Gestalten is a collection of photographs of temporary sculptures portraying people wearing their complete possessions of clothing, weaving a vivid tapestry of human identity, material belongings, and personal narratives, inviting viewers to reflect on the intimate relationship between attire, memory, and individual expression.

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High School Team Robotics

Bella Abzug Park
 on show

Following high school FIRST Robotics Competition teams participating in the 2023 season.

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ICP at THE POINT: Our Stories, Our Light

Baretto Point Park
 on show

ICP at THE POINT: Our Stories, Our Light is an exhibition of photographs by students from the International Center of Photography’s partnership with THE POINT CDC, which celebrates local voices honoring the people, places, and things that keep us uplifted in our everyday lives.

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Keepers of the Flame

Washington Street and Prospect Street
 on show

An ancient religion founded in Central Asia faces a vexing question: how to keep the fire of faith burning.

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Lesbian Avengers 1994 Protest for Alice Austen and Gertrude Tate’s Lesbian Visibility. Alice Austen Park.

Alice Austen House
 on show

Documentary photographs by Saskia Scheffer capturing the historic 1994 Lesbian Avengers protest at the Alice Austen Museum Park.

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Los Inocentes

Van Cortlandt Park
 on show

“Los Inocentes (The Innocents)” is a documentary photoessay that focuses on the resiliency of children who live in urban communities in less-than-ideal circumstances, but who prevail and thrive beyond their environments in the South Bronx, Spanish Harlem (El Barrio), and the Lower East Side (Loisaida).

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New York Waterfront Diary

Alice Austen House
 on show

I discovered the waterfront in my early twenties when I moved to Brooklyn. At the time, much of it was abandoned and falling apart. Knowing it would vanish, I felt an urge, almost a duty, to document it.

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The Hidden World of Hyenas

Washington Street and Prospect Street
 on show

In the spotted hyenas’ world, females rule. That may be the secret to their success.

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The Lams of Ludlow Street

Seward Park
 on show

As we all age, our lives take unexpected twists and turns. Begun in 2003, The Lams of Ludlow Street is an exploration of how one family’s life continues to unfold in a 350 square-foot apartment in New York City’s Chinatown.

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Transcending Perspectives

Washington Street and Prospect Street
 on show

This exhibition was curated from current students from the MFA Photography Program at Parsons School of Design in New York City.

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You Can’t Go Home Again

South Beach Promenade
 on show

Dom Marker (b. Kharkiv, 1990) is a Ukranian-American artist. His emergent artistic practice is embedded in community activism and a post-documentary approach, focused on the war in Ukraine.

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Archive Exhibitions Supported by NYC Parks

Fandom Unbound

Van Cortlandt Park
 archive : 2023

Rhynna M. Santos’ mission is to use the art of photography to document Star Wars plus size and other diverse fans frequently overlooked from the view of mainstream fandom.

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Clayton Sisterhood Project

Roy Wilkins Park
 archive : 2023

Inspired by the longing for ancestral remembrance through the traditional family album, the Clayton Sisterhood Project explores contemporary kinship, and the continuing legacy built by the photographer’s sisters and nieces from Queens, NY moving onto Clayton, North Carolina land together.

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Asian Photographers Share the Stories Behind Their Names

Bella Abzug Park
 archive : 2023

In the journey to feel at home in our Asian American or Pacific Islander identities, we may encounter different versions of ourselves. Through this collaboration, nine Asian photographers share the histories, meanings and stories behind our names.

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Beloved: African-American Portraits from the Dawn of Photography

St. Nicholas Park – 132nd Street and 139th Street
 archive : 2023

The Schomburg Center shares images of the oldest photographs in their collection. Early photographs created space for black self-representation and offered a way to visualize Black humanity at a time when most African Americans were legally held as property.

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Calories of Power; Comida

Bella Abzug Park
 archive : 2023

Calories of Power documents the efforts of a dedicated group of volunteers known by their community as Artists, Athletes, and Activists as they undertake a plant-based strategy to nourish communities in Manhattan & The Bronx with fresh fruit & vegetables.

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Children of Indigo

Old Fulton Street and Prospect Street
 archive : 2023

Indigo cultivation helped fuel American slavery. Today, women artists and homesteaders in South Carolina are writing a new chapter in indigo’s painful history.

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Inside Out

Old Fulton Street and Prospect Street
 archive : 2023

Xi Chen’s Inside Out depicts the exterior and interior of important New York City buildings in a single image, aiming to reflect both the presence of the building in its urban landscape and the human purposes it serves.

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Up the mountain, to a world apart

Washington Street and Prospect Street
 archive : 2023

A flat-topped peak high above the Amazon rainforest gives researchers a chance to identify new species and unlock secrets of evolution. The biggest challenge: getting there.

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Urban Wildlife

Washington Street and Prospect Street
 archive : 2023

As lines have blurred between nature and city in the United States, we’ve created the perfect sanctuaries for urban carnivores. Here’s why.

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Britain’s Stone Age Building Boom

Washington Street and Prospect Street
 archive : 2023

It’s not just Stonehenge: New discoveries reveal an era when awe-inspiring monuments were all the rage.

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To Queens, With Love

Astoria Park
 archive : 2023

This exhibit is connected to Queens through history, tradition, and intimate stories and experiences; three lens based artists – Anthoula Lelekidis, Salvador Espinoza, and Julie Thompson – explore themes of personal history of diaspora and memory, the impacts of development and gentrification, and the unique culture of local communities.

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Through Our Eyes: A Collective Portrait of Caracas

Travers Park
 archive : 2023

Through Our Eyes uses formal collaborative portraits and single documentary images made by young women participants of Project MiRA to tell the story of resilience, joy, and struggle in the barrios of Caracas, Venezuela – a country that has been hit by a years-long crisis.

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ICP at THE POINT: Beauty in Being

Baretto Point Park
 archive : 2023

ICP at THE POINT: Beauty in Being is an exhibition of photographs by students from the International Center of Photography’s partnership with THE POINT CDC, which celebrates local voices honoring the people, places, and things that keep us uplifted in our everyday lives.

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(In)Visible Guides

Martin Luther King Jr. Community Park Hamilton Fish Park
 archive : 2023

(In)Visible Guides brings together photographer Destiny Mata and residents of a Lower East Side shelter for domestic violence survivors to explore notions of memory, safety, and loss.

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Clayton Patterson’s Front Door: Residents and Writers

Martin Luther King Jr. Community Park
 archive : 2023

Clayton Patterson’s Front Door: Residents and Writers features rarely-seen images from the renowned photographer, who has documented the unique cultural ecosystem of the Lower East Side for over 40 years.

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Hidden Staten Island

South Beach Promenade
 archive : 2023

Nathan Kensinger’s work explores hidden urban landscapes, post-industrial ecologies, forgotten waterways, environmental contamination, and coastal communities endangered by sea level rise and climate change. His work encompasses photography, film, installation, curation and writing.

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We Are Too Dull-Eyed to See That Beauty

South Beach Promenade
 archive : 2023

The images are part of a series of photographs that I have taken over the past two years at various beaches and state parks in Staten Island. Utilizing black and white, I was able to create wistful and romantic images that capture the essence of the environment, and the ambiguity that lies ahead.

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The Sound of Shadows

Alice Austen House
 archive : 2023

Gerard Franciosa (b.Queens, NY 1967) has been photographing for over 30 years. He is drawn to particular places, landscapes that reveal a personality and emit a force that excites him, scares him or gives him solace. His photographs index disturbances, both visual and perceived, caused by light, form and the geometry of chaos and stillness.

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All the Dreamers

Alice Austen House
 archive : 2023

All the Dreamers is a collection of candid portraits made on board the Staten Island Ferry between 2014 to 2022. Its images depict ferry riders in moments of repose and respite during an anxious time for the city, nation and world

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Freshkills

Alice Austen House
 archive : 2023

Jade Doskowʼs large-scale photographs of the iconic New York landfill-turned-park Freshkills make clear itsʼ paradoxical, ethereal beauty, while creating an important archive of a major chapter within the story of New York Cityʼs infrastructure.

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Reflections on Harbour

Alice Austen House
 archive : 2023

The images that I make are drawn from my daily experiences and made in an intuitive and spontaneous manner. I am drawn to personal portraits, evocative gestures, and the small details in someone or something that I can use to make a visual statement on the world-at-large.

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Alone Together (An exploration of companionship in solitude)

Old Fulton Street and Prospect Street
 archive : 2022

Presented by Photoville and NYC Parks

If we have ourselves as company, are we ever truly alone?

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Antique Pink

Old Fulton Street and Prospect Street
 archive : 2022

Presented by The Open Mind Foundation, Photoville and NYC Parks, with additional support from the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York

Antique Pink is a tribute to LGBTQIA+ elderly. Thanks to the emancipation struggle of the generations before us, LGBTQIA+ people in the Netherlands are almost equal before the law. But that acquired freedom is fragile, and the progress made will not automatically endure.

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care:work

Old Fulton Street and Prospect Street
 archive : 2022

Presented by care:work and NYC Parks

Care:work is a clear-eyed look at the diversity of work — the dignity, strength, and challenges confronting caregivers in our families, institutions, and communities.

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Down By The Water

Old Fulton Street and Prospect Street
 archive : 2022

Presented by The Ravestijn Gallery, Photoville and NYC Parks, with additional support from the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York

The longer I do not travel, the more I turn to the place where I live. I see how my environment takes care of me — how the baker and the greengrocer bring groceries to my doorstep every Saturday morning — how all kinds of people call this their town, their neighborhood, their home.

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Reflections on Indigeneity in the Bronx

Van Cortlandt Park
 archive : 2022

Presented by The Bronx Women’s Photo Collective with Photoville and NYC Parks

The Bronx Women’s Photo Collective, a group of self-taught photographers, memorialize the story of their search for their Taíno roots through three original photography projects.

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The urgent need to protect the Serengeti’s intricate web of life

Washington Street and Prospect Street
 archive : 2022

Presented by National Geographic

The vast and varied ecosystem of thousands of plant and animal species is a place of astonishing resilience — but it needs the support of Kenyans and Tanzanians to survive.

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A Place Where the Dream Lives

Washington Street and Prospect Street
 archive : 2022

Presented by National Geographic

In a nation with a history of racist housing policies, this community became an enduring exception — and a point of pride.

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For autistic youths entering adulthood, a new world of challenges awaits

Washington Street and Prospect Street
 archive : 2022

Presented by National Geographic

Finding work, love, and independence can be especially difficult for those on the spectrum.

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A Deliberate Impression

Old Fulton Street and Prospect Street
 archive : 2022

Presented by Parsons School of Design and NYC Parks

A Deliberate Impression features the work of current MFA photography students from Parsons School of Design in New York City.

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Olmsted’s Enduring Gift

Litchfield Villa Lawn, Prospect Park
 archive : 2022

Presented by The New York Times

Additional Support by Prospect Park Alliance and NYC Parks

The man behind many of the nation’s beloved public spaces, Frederick Law Olmsted, was born 200 years ago. His creations are more essential to modern American life than ever.

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Legacy

Old Fulton Street and Prospect Street
 archive : 2021

Lion’s Tooth Legacy Photo Project, uplifts the stories of seven immigrant and first generation youth photographers. Stories that reflect on the intersections of family, ancestors, joy, race, gender, faith and radical self-love as a way to deconstruct the legacy we choose to carry, heal and part ways from, but also build as future ancestors.

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On My Block

Van Cortlandt Park
 archive : 2021

On My Block is a love letter to New York City from a native New Yorker. The project utilizes portraits and cityscapes to give the viewer a unique perspective of the city.

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A New Beginning

Old Fulton Street and Prospect Street
 archive : 2021

A new beginning is part of the transmedia project Shadow Game by Eefje Blankevoort and Els van Driel, produced in close collaboration with journalist and translator Zuhoor al Qaisi.

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Been Seen

St. Nicholas Park – 132nd Street and 139th Street
 archive : 2021

The exhibition places in conversation the work of Harlem-based studio photographer Austin Hansen (1910-1996) with six contemporary photographers: Dario Calmese, Cheriss May, Flo Ngala, Ricky Day, Gerald Peart, and Mark Clennon. Their practices explore identity, Black experiences, visual culture, and portraiture.

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ICP at THE POINT: Picturing Sorrow and Joy

Baretto Point Park
 archive : 2021

This exhibition celebrates local voices picturing the sorrows and joys of daily life as we heal and transform in community with one another.

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Prospect Park: My Oasis In Brooklyn

Lefferts House, Prospect Park
 archive : 2021

Across 41 years of photographing in Prospect Park, Jamel Shabazz has captured reunion picnics, musicians, races, dog walks, and so much more in the beloved park he calls his “Oasis in Brooklyn.”

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Taking It To The Streets

Chelsea Park
 archive : 2021

In response to the rapid succession of police killings of Black Americans in the spring of 2020, a small group of concerned citizens in New York City channeled their outrage into activism—sparking the biggest reoccurring mass cyclist protests the world has ever seen.

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The International Photo Festival Leiden Presents: 15 Talented Photographers From Europe

Old Fulton Street and Prospect Street
 archive : 2021

The International Photo Festival Leiden (IPFL) offers emerging European photographers a stage in the first phase of their professional career. The IPFL creates an international platform with a high visibility and advertising value. The photographers show their work and get into contact with a broad and international photography-loving audience.

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Unsettled

Old Fulton Street and Prospect Street
 archive : 2021

UNSETTLED is a project on change. The project documents the effects of shifting environmental, ecological, political, and economical decisions on the environment and its society. Approached from the harbor expansion zone of Antwerp in Belgium, it portrays a topic of global relevance.

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WEINDE

Old Fulton Street and Prospect Street
 archive : 2021

WEINDE is an iteration of Afro Diaries. It is a mixed-media collage series of photography reflective of African emancipation, flight, futuristic cities, travel, and spirituality.

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Faces Of Harlem

Harlem Historic Parks
 archive : 2021

Faces of Harlem is a photography exhibition celebrating the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance with 100 Harlem portraits.

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Taxi Journey Through My Windows 1977-1987

First Street Green Cultural Park
 archive : 2021

TAXI: Journey Through My Windows 1977–1987 is a portrait of the gritty chaos and community of New York in the 1970s. The book is composed of photographs captured from the driver’s seat of documentary photographer (and cab driver) Joseph Rodriguez’s taxi—including scenes of night workers getting off their shifts, children jumping through the spray of open fire hydrants in the summer, and S&M partiers leaving clubs, zipped in leather, in the early hours of the morning.

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Constructing Equality

Chelsea Park
 archive : 2020

The trailblazing women photographed for this project are bringing change to the construction industry of New York. They are building the future of the construction trades.

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Redefining Beauty

Washington Street and Prospect Street
 archive : 2020

Beauty standards are at once a celebration of femininity, and an agent of conformity. Around the world, technology and social media have put the power to define beauty in the hands of the people. We are in an expansive moment where everyone is beautiful.

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Q100

Astoria Park
 archive : 2020

Q100 was photographed by Salvador Espinoza during 2016. The only method of public transportation to and from Rikers Island, the Q100 bus originates in his hometown neighborhood of Long Island City.

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Portrait of Grief

Washington Street and Prospect Street
 archive : 2020

Wayne Lawrence’s collaborative portraits of loss remove abstraction and remind us that every life lost during this pandemic is profound, and deeply personal.

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Photoville’s Emerging Artists to Watch

Old Fulton Street and Prospect Street
 archive : 2020

Photoville’s Emerging Artists to Watch.

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In Our Season of Discontent, Count It All Joy

St. Nicholas Park – 132nd Street and 139th Street
 archive : 2020

An exploration of the Black vernacular through archival photographs depicting gatherings, essential workers, pioneers, genius, and joy.

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Flamingo Bob

Washington Street and Prospect Street
 archive : 2020

Flamingo Bob is a celebrity on the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao, where he acts as an emissary for conservation and protecting nature.

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Archive Sessions and Events Supported by NYC Parks

Oct 232021

Walking Tour Of Taxi: Journey Through My Windows 1977-1987, With Joseph Rodriguez

Grab your morning coffee and come join legendary photographer Joseph Rodriguez as he shares his memories and stories behind the images in his exhibition and book “Taxi: Journey Through My Windows 1977-1987,” a collection of snapshots that are on display along the fence of First Street Green Cultural Park on Houston Street.

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This website was made possible thanks to the generous support and partnership of Photowings