Samuel Lang Budin

United States

Series: Unmanageable Retreat

“Unmanageable Retreat” is a growing typology of places in and around New York City at risk of being permanently flooded by the Atlantic Ocean within the not-too-distant future. While the speed and extent of this flooding cannot be predicted surely or accurately, there is no question that the window of time we have to avert it and other concomitant catastrophes are rapidly closing.
—All I know about the places in these photographs is that they have been attended to—whether touched briefly or deeply cared for over decades—and that’s all I need to know to be certain that they’re worth preserving. They are shown at the crossroads: neither with humans present nor yet the water; at once stilled and trembling within the portentousness of our passing moment.