Nathan Kensinger documents efforts towards an equitable water future for New York.

For the 2024-2025 Photo Urbanism Fellowship, photographer and journalist Nathan Kensinger documented efforts to create a more equitable water future for New York City. Although the city has 520 miles of coastline and dozens of waterfront parks, for many New Yorkers, finding access to the nearest waterway is nearly impossible. Hundreds of thousands of residents in waterfront neighborhoods have been cut off from the coastline by train lines, highways, and industry. To get to the water, the best route is often an informal trail, blazed by neighborhood residents. Sometimes called desire lines, these unofficial pathways are hidden behind fences and on dead-end streets. 

During his fellowship, Nathan Kensinger photographed informal access points along three of the city’s largest waterways – the Newtown Creek, Flushing Creek, and Harlem River – and documented work being done by local community groups to create more meaningful and equitable public access to the waterfront. His photographs explore abandoned train lines and street ends, where local residents are developing their own community-led visions for green spaces. Ideas for the future of these creeks include digging up their buried sections, in order to daylight their hidden routes, and plans for more formalized pathways, leading to public spaces at the water’s edge.

An exhibition of Kensinger’s work, titled “Desire Lines and Daylighting,” was installed in Hudson River Park at Pier 57, one of the only indoor public spaces on Manhattan’s waterfront. On view to the public from June 18th 2025 to September 4th 2025, the exhibit presented more than 30 photographs of these waterways, alongside interviews and descriptions about the work of local community groups, including the Guardians of Flushing Bay, Harlem River Coalition, Newtown Creek Alliance, NYC H2O, and South Bronx Unite