In her images of street-level city life, German photographer Gudrun Kemsa (born 1961) creates strangely poetic tableaux of everyday interactions between New Yorkers and their surrounding environment. The urban architecture of banks, bus stops and boutiques serves as a backdrop for the anonymous protagonists of her images, who are frequently captured mid-stride as they hurry to their destinations. At other times the people are still, caught in a moment of brief respite as they wait at an intersection or huddle over their phones.

Though the locations shift, in every image the people are dwarfed by the industrial setting that exceeds the camera’s frame. The figures appear almost as if they were following stage directions, arranged so as to utilize the space in the most artful manner possible. Kemsa’s wide-format horizontal photography presents the hustle and bustle of NYC from a compelling new perspective.