Our 2026 Photo Urbanism theme, Home Without Boundaries will explore public spaces that evoke the feelings, memory, and rituals of home. In partnership with the Macaulay’s Honor College at CUNY, eight selected undergrad students will participate in a week long photography fellowship and final photo exhibition, led by our Photo Urbanism Fellow Barnabas Crosby.
Barnabas Crosby, our 2020 Photo Urbanism Fellow, is returning to the program to lead a cohort of youth fellows through a guided Spring 2026 photography fellowship. The selected youth fellows will receive funding to explore photography as a tool for personal research and urban storytelling. Through a combination of guided research, expert-led workshops, and proposal development, students will build portfolios that reflect engagement with the environment and present their work at a final public exhibition in NYC.
The 2026 theme Home Without Boundaries will explore themes of memory, nostalgia and rituals of home. The series invites Youth Fellows to reflect on how shared environments, including parks, streets, plazas, and everyday gathering spaces, can foster connection, care, and a sense of belonging beyond private walls.
Crosby’s previous work as a Photo Urbanism Fellow, Holding Court, explored the resilience and ingenuity of entrepreneurs and the power of public space during an uncertain time in the city’s economy. Over the course of the fellowship, Barnabas repurposed his neighborhood handball court as a photography studio. He invited local business owners to sit and join him in this exercise of “re-imagination.” Learn more about past Photo Urbanism exhibitions at photourbanism.org
Meet the 2026 Photo Urbanism Cohort here!
The Photo Urbanism Fellowship is supported in part by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts. Learn more and view the online photo gallery at photourbanism.org