Imagined Geographies

An atlas from the minds of New Yorkers. If you could, where would you take me on a guided tour?

A work in progress -- bring the project to your community!

I’ve asked people for guided tours for twenty years. One part of this practice has been asking people to imagine where in the world they would take me on a guided tour, if they could. This body of work, from my sidewalk photo studios set up in Jamaica, Queens in 2016 and Harlem, Manhattan in 2002—as part of residencies with No Longer Empty and De La Vega—weaves a shared imagined geography, encompassing the most everyday parts of our lives, the most seminal places in our personal histories, and the most desired places of our futures. In 2020, in the trauma and constrained mobility of that year, I returned to these stories of complex personhood and how we can travel in our minds for an exhibition at AAI. 

I’ve begun to chart this imagined world, and am seeking new collaborators, new sites to set up this sidewalk photo studio, to continue weaving the always unexpected geographies spun from the minds of New Yorkers. 

An ongoing project building an atlas of imagined geographies
Imagined Geog 8

At the De La Vega exhibition, Harlem, New York City, 2002

At Jameco Exchange, No Longer Empty exhibition,
Jamaica, Queens, New York City, 2016

NLE_Jameco_Closing_ID_124 (1)