Waterworks: A Photographic Journey through New YorkÆs Hidden Water System

New York’s water system is staggering – it provides 1.3 billion gallons of water a day to over 9 million people from 200 square miles of watershed. its aqueducts, reservoirs, tunnels, gatehouses, and tanks have been continually under construction since the 1830s, and its current – and largest – tunnel project will not be completed until 2020. But more significantly, New York’s water system is also sublime – from its acres of bucolic land to its glimmering steel mechanizations, Waterworks captures the beauty and mystery of the system that is so essential to so many.
Photographer Stanley Greenberg began photographing these spectacular sites in 1992 after years of petitioning the authorities to gain access to them. Since then he has traveled to places as varied as dams in remote regions of upstate New York and tunnels 800 feet below the streets of Brooklyn. He finished his shooting in the spring of 2001, just before the events of 9/11 closed most of these sites to all access. In Waterworks, Greenberg reveals the now hidden liquid city in stunning duotones. An introduction by Matthew Gandy covers the history, technology, and culture of the system.