Notes From Queens

Queens, New York City, is a crossroads where communities from around the world converge, creating a unique urban landscape shaped by migration and transformation.

Yet Queens is also a metaphor, a way station where many recent immigrants work low-wage jobs and acclimate to life in the U.S. before moving on to other parts of the country. For others who grew up in the borough, it serves as a stepping stone toward more affluent places—a space of transition and reinvention.

At the same time, Queens is grounded in communities with deeper roots in the U.S. Its structure reflects the sensibilities of the small towns it was built upon, forming a historical foundation onto which more recent immigrant experiences have been layered.

When photographing in Queens, I am drawn to the evolving textures of space where old structures and new identities intersect. I focus on how the values and aspirations of new arrivals imprint themselves onto the existing cityscape, often producing a complex visual dialogue. The result is a pastiche—traces of classic Americana overlaid with artifacts from emerging communities, all framed by the borough’s century-old, decaying infrastructure.