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The first Photo Urbanism Fellowship was awarded to Len Jenshel and Diane Cook for their project, "The Edge of New York," where they documented 600 miles of New York City waterfront.
The photographs examine how and why New Yorkers have become so isolated from their waterfront, and draw attention to the citywide dialogue on its potential reuse. It was the photographers' intention to “document and interpret the waterfront areas of public access, particularly the confluence and counterpoint of recreation and commerce, development and conservation, nature and architecture.”
The project concluded with a public presentation in June 2003 at the Drawing Center in New York City. The photographers presented and discussed their project through a slide show and display of photographs. Following their presentation, Phillip Lopate, author of a book on the New York City waterfront, used the photographs as a springboard to speak about the past, present, and future of the waterfront.
Into the scrum of preservationists, developers, maritime interests, politicians and ordinary New Yorkers, each fighting for a particular vision of the waterfront, come Diane Cook and Len Jenshel, a husband-and-wife photography team who have spent the past three years documenting the city's infinitely convoluted 578 miles of shoreline.…Both photographers work in the documentary tradition, but they are artists more than journalists, and the romance, wit and mystery that emerge from their images go far beyond any factual statement of reality.