Joel Sternfeld : Walking the High Line

In March 2000, Joel Sternfeld began photographing the High Line, an abandoned elevated railway which runs down the West Side of Manhattan.

Sometimes a river of grass, sometimes more like Canadian wheat fields, this unique ruin permitted Sternfeld to contemplate nature within the city.

Walking the path of this true-time landscape, Sternfeld experienced the seasons as they unfolded in a meandering ribbon within the vertical architecture of New York City, and he created a suite of images marked by quiet grace and formal rigour.

In Walking the High Line, as in all of his work, landscape is both a social and cultural indicator.

In 2009, the High Line was converted into a public park that will preserve the delights of the High Line for future generations. Sternfelds book is thus a unique record of the High Line at a time when it faced demolition, and this reprint follows several sold-out editions.

A major figure in the photography world, Joel Sternfeld was born in New York City in 1944.

He has received numerous awards including two Guggenheim fellowships, a Prix de Rome and the Citibank Photography Award. Sternfelds books published by Steidl include American Prospects (2003), Sweet Earth (2006), Oxbow Archive (2008) and First Pictures (2011).