Design Trust for Public Space, in partnership with Pier 57, presents “Desire Lines and Daylighting” by photographer and filmmaker Nathan Kensinger. This multimedia exhibition documents local efforts to protect and expand access to New York’s waterways.
Focusing on waterfront communities in The Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens, this exhibition offers a mix of photographs, videos, and interviews uncovering local efforts to reclaim and restore coastlines that have been polluted and cut off by industrialization. Kensinger follows the work of community organizations along the shoreline of the Harlem River and Bronx Kill, the waterfront of Flushing Bay and Flushing Creek, and the coast of the Newtown Creek, where residents have created their own informal pathways to these waterways, while environmental stewards have designed proposals to restore habitats, creating much-needed green spaces and public access.
Hosted at one of the only indoor public spaces on Manhattan’s waterfront, the exhibition will be on display in Pier 57’s Living Room - located on the ground floor past Market 57- in Hudson River Park from June 18th to July 16th, 2025. Access to the Living Room is free and open from 6am - 1am.
“Desire Lines and Daylighting” is a part of the Design Trust for Public Space Photo Urbanism program that offers fellowships to local photographers to create a new body of work illuminating the public spaces of NYC. This year’s Photo Urbanism fellow, Nathan Kensigner, was chosen alongside Design Trust’s 2025 Request for Proposals themed around Water, a call for projects that will launch later this year. Kensinger is a Brooklyn-based photographer, filmmaker, journalist, and artist whose work explores hidden urban landscapes, post-industrial ecologies, forgotten waterways, and coastal communities endangered by sea level rise and climate change. Over the past 20 years, he has created a series of photo essays, documentary films, public art projects, and video installations about New York City’s changing waterfront. The photographs included in this exhibition will be printed on reusable materials, with the intent to later exhibit them within the communities they document.
Join us for Opening Night with the photographer June 18th, 6 pm! RSVP HERE!
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New York City has 520 miles of coastline, but for hundreds of thousands of local residents in The Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens, the closest waterway is often inaccessible, cut off by train lines, highways, and fences. Despite that, community members have found their own pathways to the water.