'The New Normal'

Photographer and writer Camilo José Vergara has long trained his lens on the streets of cities (see "The Other Shinola: A Proposal"), mainly poor and minority areas and particularly New York, where he lives. His latest outing is Documenting Crossroads: The New Normal, which captures the efforts of residents in poor, segregated neighborhoods as they go about their lives during a pandemic. The photos see Vergara bouncing from one "crossroad" to another in Harlem, Queens, Newark, New Jersey and other neighborhoods over the last few months.

Done with architectural historian Elihu Rubin from the Yale School of Architecture, the online exhibition includes a slideshow of Vergara's photographs — partitioned by such themes as "New Street Ballet" and "Carving Out Space" — and essays by Vergara and Rubin. Even though many people in New York City are working from home to deter the spread of COVID-19, the images and words of the exhibition reveal that New York's metro area is still teeming with people: the essential workers, the homeless, and others displaying what Rubin calls "this new urban ballet of social coordination."

Visit the National Building Museum's website to see the entire Documenting Crossroads: The New Normal by Camilo José Vergara with Elihu Rubin; and see also the earlier exhibition it accompanies: Documenting Crossroads: The Coronavirus in Poor, Minority Communities by Camilo José Vergara with Chrysanthe Broikos.