New York Arbor
Epstein treats New York’s trees as portrait subjects. Rooted in New York's parks, gardens, sidewalks, and cemeteries, some trees grow wild, while some are contortionists adapting to their constricted surroundings; still others are pruned into prized specimens. Many are hundreds of years old and arrived as souvenirs and diplomatic gifts from abroad. As urban development closes in on them, New York’s trees continue to thrive in a complex relationship with their human counterparts. These photographs invert our usual view of a city: Trees no longer function as background and instead dominate human life.