Gowanus and Red Hook are neighborhoods in Brooklyn, New York that are primarily zoned for light to heavy manufacturing. Years of neglect and abandon have left the streets and waterfront in disrepair. Dead-end streets abutting the Red Hook waterfront have become magnets for illegal dumping. Abandoned and contaminated, the Gowanus Canal has become a recipient of waste products from industries located along the canal and raw sewage from the adjacent residential neighborhoods.

Photographing these neighborhoods, I have witnessed failed attempts at urban renewal. Parks have been built and trees planted, only to lie vacant and derelict. My images are a document of these disregarded spaces. By confining myself to this relatively small area for the past three years, I have been able to pay careful attention to the details and study a desolate landscape uncared for and routinely passed by. These claustrophobic images also describe the architecture of the human urban landscape: apartments, offices, factories, walls, and fences.

As a critical lack of affordable housing pushes city residents further and further into these marginalized areas, however, residential communities continue to expand and the Gowanus and Red Hook are on the verge of giving way to upscale gentrification. Since beginning this project in 2002, many of these buildings have been razed, closed down, or renovated, and my photographs have assumed an historical value. Land use has become a timely issue and my work represents a way of assessing environmental history and our place within it.