I’ve been an Open House New Yorker since

In 2013, while on a Boat Tour, Linda Miller saw my big camera, and approached me, assuming I was the event photographer. After we spoke, she put me in touch with Open House. A month later, they gave me my first assignment for OHNY Weekend. One of my first sites to photograph was a tour of Grand Central. Because it was all public access, I assumed everyone already knew what Grand Central looked like, so I focused on photographing the people on the tour instead of the space. I think this made my photos stand out.

The following April, they called me back to shoot a tour of Brooklyn Bridge Park’s expansion, and 6 more times before the following OHNY Weekend. Some of those 2014 off-weekend sites included: The Wall Street Red Room, Sims Recycling, and a series at South Street Seaport. I loved learning how my city was developing, and I’ve been shooting for OHNY ever since. I’ve lost count somewhere around 150 sites and events, and have loved every one of them.

I’m an Open House New Yorker because 

It started as access to cool places to photograph. But somewhere along the way, I fell in love with the mission and the people behind OHNY. I just longed to be useful to them. I believe in what they are doing, and I think we all love showcasing our city. Of course I love some of the exciting locations, but every year, I ask Kristin, or Alba, or Elis to put me where they need me. Maybe all the photographers want the juicy sites. I want the juicy sites; But more than that, I want to help them achieve their mission. Because their mission is great. They are great, and our city is great.

Maybe we can lose sight of that sometimes, but I think we’re all at our best when we’re in service to other people. That’s why I love OHNY so much. It’s not the city, it’s not the sites, it’s sharing those things, and serving those things, alongside (and for) other people.

To anyone out there volunteering, I would remind you that wherever you are, no matter how beautiful or grand the space you’re in, it always feels better if you can share that moment of awe with someone else. You’ll almost never see one of my photographs without people in it. I always leave the viewer with someone to look at the photo with, and thus a partner to share in that moment of awe. So make it about the people. Show up for them, and find your own joy in sharing your space with them.

At least that’s why I am an Open House New Yorker.

What’s your favorite OHNY memory?  

Two come to mind.

One was a bus ride to Freshkills. We had to take a bus from the SI ferry to the site, and there were not enough seats. On the way out, I sat in the back, on a milk crate. As a photographer, and really as someone who’s still a kid, I love weird perspectives. Sitting on a milk crate, bouncing around on an old bus as we made our way to one of the up-and-coming parks of New York, it just felt like an occasion. I could just as well have been riding down a dirt road on an expedition into the desert.

I’m certain I’ll remember that bus ride differently than almost everyone else. I couldn’t see anything out of the windows, except the sky from the windshield at the other end of the bus. On the way back, Elis fought me (and won) to take my place on the crate, so I could have a seat. She was so adamant. And Brandon Crain turned to me, and goes: “You see what I have to put up with?” I couldn’t help but smile.

The adventure, the excitement of seeing a new park, but really the company and the lengths they go to sacrifice for one another are something I cherish. As a result, that bus ride is more ingrained in my memory than even the park itself.

The second memory was of the Grand Central Expansion (East Side Access) in February of 2020.

I am a train nerd. So much. I’d been trying to get into the Second Ave Tunnels for years, so to be here was exciting beyond belief.

However, the real reason I remember this is that two weeks earlier, my mom had died. Very unexpectedly. It rocked me, and thrust me to become the head of my family with barely a moment to grieve. I had been upstate, living my own preview of the social isolation we would all later find in March of 2020. Then, my first full day out of isolating grief, here I was with my OHNY family, in an exciting place, taking photos for them. I was serving my people, but everything was not on my shoulders.

In the time since that event, I have realized how important service to others is. It makes it all sweeter. It makes my work more meaningful. If I was there alone, taking those same photographs, it wouldn’t have been the same. Even if the photos came out better.

I loved that tour, and I loved seeing all of my people, even if I didn’t say much, and was hidden behind the camera most of the time. Finally, to be in a space as it would never be again, half finished, a true part of The City; that’s a really special feeling. But to do it with my people, it was everything. It was a reminder that there was still joy to be had in this world, and it was because of Open House New York.