This project has grown out of a long-term research interest of mine, which is the question of how a neighborhood looks affects people's decisions about living there. And that led to another question - do most people like the same things in neighborhood design and "feel", or do people differ dramatically in their preferences for neighborhood aesthetics?

So I started taking pictures of neighborhoods in New York back in 2003, and then did a little experiment where I asked people to try to match the pictures to statistics about the people who were actually living in the area. That was fun and I think somewhat illuminating for the people who got to play my matching game. Unfortunately, though, I only had six neighborhoods photographed, so my project wasn't big enough to do anything more. I've used those photos in classes I've taught as well as at a number of professional conferences. I talk a lot about New York City, and it's great for people to have a visual image of the place I'm talking about.

I'm now working with photographers all over New York City to expand my image database to include as many of the 200-or-so neighborhoods as possible. We will then create an exhibition using a selection of these photographs together with statistical information that I am compiling for each neighborhood. The exhibition will first be available online, but we plan to display it in a physical NYC gallery as well I hope to use the images in future research of mine as well.