The black-and-white photographs featured in our newest publication, Life Along the Elevated: Photographs by Krisanne Johnson, reveal contemporary urban life under and around elevated transit infrastructure in NYC in an intimate and engaging way.

New York City has nearly 700 miles of elevated infrastructure – bridges, highways, subway tracks, and rail lines – towering above its streets and weaving throughout its five boroughs. 

For her Photo Urbanism fellowship, Brooklyn-based photographer Krisanne Johnson documented how this massive transit system and the millions of square feet of public space below it influence life in the city. Through Krisanne’s lens, we are able to see how local residents have, in some cases, adopted and embraced these spaces for community use, and recognize the incredible potential that exists to maximize and transform the public space under our city’s bridges, highways, subways and rail lines so that they better serve all New Yorkers.

The resulting photographs featured in Life Along the Elevated take us on a captivating journey along the 2/5 subway tracks in the Bronx, beneath the Manhattan Bridge in Chinatown, along the JMZ subway tracks in Brooklyn and underneath the Metro North line in East Harlem.