My Currently Untitled Photo Book: The Backstory

From March through December of 2025, I’m shooting the second half of my largest body of work — and, if all goes as planned, my first book.

Here’s the idea: I chose a collection of photos I shot in 2020 and I’m reshooting them all exactly five years later – same day, same place, same time.

The idea for the book originally started to come to me in May-ish of 2020, during the height of lockdown when I was shooting almost every day. It wasn’t clear exactly what it was going to be, but I knew I was taking photos that I’d never get to take again. Standing on the Brooklyn Bridge alone, in Times Square alone, and in Grand Central during peak commuting hours – alone – was truly (hopefully) a once in a lifetime experience. After seeing a few of the most iconic places actually empty, I started picturing split images: left side, 2020, right side, some year in the future when the city feels “normal” again, filled back up with lights and people and life.

Buuuut – on the other hand…as a photographer? I’ve fantasized about taking these exact photos – a once-in-a-lifetime, no-traffic, no-tourist, completely unobstructed view of my all-time favorite subject: New York City. I saw some of the most quiet, moving, human moments I’ve ever witnessed.

By summer, every day that went by made it feel more inevitable that we would now measure things in “before and after” the pandemic, but I was working remotely for a company based in AZ at the time, and my coworkers were NOT experiencing the same thing that I was. I think a lot of us in New York felt the weight of that, and I really leaned on photography to communicate what lockdown actually looked and felt like – it kept me afloat that year. It kept me tethered to reality when reality seemed just so absolutely far fetched.

Fast forward to the end of 2023 — and the idea was taking shape. I started combing through my 2020 archive, narrowing things down, picking favorites. Then narrowing again. And again, until I had a group of photos I thought I could actually recreate. (Side note: I rarely use a tripod unless I absolutely have to – and I don’t think I ever did in 2020 – so figuring out the exact perspective now is a whole thing.) And in November 2023, I shared that I’d be shooting a book in 2024.

Also in 2023 — my dad’s cancer came back. It wasn’t his first rodeo, but by October, things had gotten pretty serious. We started hearing words like “incurable” for the first time. He kept fighting, with one big goal in mind: to get strong enough to undergo a specific treatment in early 2024 that was essentially a last resort.

As spring 2024 rolled around — and my dad was strong enough to start treatment. My parents moved into a hotel next to the hospital in Charleston for six weeks, and I moved into their house to take care of Rudy, our family dog & a true legend. I visited a lot, helped give my mom breaks when I could, and planned to stay as long as they needed once my dad came home. Needless to say, shooting the book was not a priority. April and May of 2024 — the window I would’ve needed to begin shooting — were for my family. Easiest decision I’ve ever made. And the best part? My dad is healthy and doing great.

So — fast forward to now, in 2025. Every shot is in a big nerdy database with all the before photos, their metadata, and shot times for this year – and it’s been synced to my calendar. I’ve talked the idea through with friends, done a very small amount of publishing research, and I’ve got a loose roadmap for how I want to document the whole thing as I go.

Here’s what I know for sure:

1. I’m going to reshoot each photo as close to the exact minute as humanly possible.

2. There are 2 days in May I’ll be out of town (shoutout to my friends getting married — I’m so excited to shoot your wedding), but I’ll either shoot them early or come back and capture those photos a couple days later, at the same time of day. I’m hoping these are the only days I miss.

3. I’ll share on Instagram in realtime as much as I can, like the actual days I go out to shoot. I’ll write about each shoot and share it here within a few days or as soon as I’ve had a chance to edit.

Here’s what I’m figuring out as I go:

1. I’d like to get back into video this year. I’m focused on nailing the alignment of the photos for now, but I’m also picturing a gallery version with video elements, so I’m slowly figuring out how to shoot both without getting in my own way.

2. Some of the timing between photos is... tight. There may be a couple photos that I miss by a few minutes. I was really booking it around the city in 2020 apparently, and I need time to set these up and get the framing right. I’m going to get as many of them exactly right as I can, but I may have to give myself some grace.

3. I’m basically location scouting my own work. Some shots are easy to identify — I remember exactly where I stood. But a few were taken from the most random spots or as I was crossing an empty street that is no longer ever empty, so I’m trying to go a couple days before if I’m really unsure.

4. I’ve always pictured this as a book and a gallery. I don’t really care which comes first or how it all unfolds. Right now, the focus is on making the work as good as it can be — and trusting the rest to fall into place.