The Ground We Share in New York City is an ongoing photographic project documenting green spaces across the five boroughs. In neighborhoods shaped by migration, housing pressure, and constant development, these spaces exist as collectively maintained pockets of ecological and social life.

I photograph trees growing behind chain-link fences, mushrooms emerging after summer rain, bees moving between blossoms, and New Yorkers reading, gathering, and resting. In a city defined by density and vertical expansion, these horizontal grounds hold a different rhythm. Built and sustained through volunteer labor, they transform vacant or contested lots into shared spaces of nourishment and pause.

Many of the plants cultivated here carry migratory histories. Within urban soil, they root new forms of belonging. Rather than treating the garden as an escape, this project understands it as deeply embedded in the city, shaped by neighborhood histories, spatial struggle, and collective care. Through seasonal observation across boroughs, I trace how shared stewardship reshapes public land and reimagines what common ground can mean in New York.