An exploration of the edges and diverse neighborhoods of New York City, Limits of the City captures a New York seldom featured in tourist guides, depicted on film, or visited by locals—the quiet corners and unheralded places far removed from the glamour, noise, and bustle so many non-New Yorkers associate with the city.

Portraying the period between 9/11 and the 2008 financial crash, the project began as a commissioned body of work done in cooperation with another Belgian-born, New York-based artist, writer Jacqueline Goossens. A longtime columnist for Belgian publications, Goossens is known for her New York travelogues.

While some of the photographs document places and people covered in Goossens’ essays, I was given free reign to go where I wished. Staying within the limits of the five boroughs, I covered a wide array of places, from Tottenville, Staten Island to Douglaston, Queens, from Far Rockeway, Queens to Riverdale in The Bronx.

Selections from this project were published in 2007 in Belgium, the book’s Magritte-influenced title  Dit is Niet New York, De Iconen Voorbij can be translated into English as “This Is Not New York, Beyond The Icons”. The quietness I sought out in this project would later find an unexpected echo in 2020’s A Quiet Place.