My project, Long Island City, is a series of photos documenting the neighborhood of Long Island City in Queens, New York. It is a portrait of the neighborhood that reveals the changes that have occurred over time, as traces of industrial activity and commerce have faded away. I also photographed myself moving through the neighborhood and captured introspective landscapes with a large-format camera. In the photographic process, I magnified these scenes, turning them into a close study of the mundane.

Along with presenting images of Long Island City, the series delves into the history and topography of the neighborhood. Drawing on the archives of the Queens Library and the New York Public Library, I incorporated materials including scans, collages, digital media, and recorded video into the project. I captured both color and black-and-white images of the neighborhood on large-format film, which I used to create a fluid image grid and a photo book. The images are accompanied by short stories in the form of autofiction that offer clues to my interactions with and memories of Long Island City. The anonymous pseudo-protagonist represents the people of the neighborhood going about their daily routines.

https://www.jialiangwang.net/still/long-island-city