Capturing Queens

Starting with our Queens Migrant Kitchens project – whose creator, Sarah Khan, was recently featured on Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown – and continuing with the introduction of our dedicated Queens section, we’ve been increasingly drawn deeper into the rich world of New York’s most diverse borough.

The food in Queens, representing communities that speak over 150 languages, is of course a major draw. But it’s the human element, particularly the stories of the immigrants who call Queens home, that we have found so compelling – especially during these unsettling political times. We have been exploring these stories in particular through our new Queens culinary walk, which goes through the immigrant neighborhoods of Corona and Elmhurst and stops at vendors, small restaurants and groceries to get the culinary take on what it means to make it in America today.

We recently asked New York-based freelance photographer Melanie Einzig to go along our walk’s route and document what she saw. Einzing, whose photos have been printed in several books about photography including Bystander: A History of Street Photography (Bullfinch), Street Photography Now (Thames and Hudson) and New York in Color (Abrams), has a knack for capturing the inherent, and sometimes whimsical, humanity of a moment – even when photographing inanimate objects – and we were curious to get her impressions of this bustling slice of Queens.

Below is a slideshow of some of our favorite images from her shoot:

Published on May 22, 2017

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