Walking the High Line

Third Edition

In March 2000 Joel Sternfeld began photographing the High Line, an abandoned elevated railway which runs down the West Side of Manhattan. Sometimes a river of grass, sometimes more like Canadian wheat fields, this unique ruin permitted Sternfeld to contemplate nature within the city. Walking the path of this true-time landscape, Sternfeld ex- perienced the seasons as they unfolded in a meandering ribbon within the vertical architecture of New York City, and he created a suite of images marked by quiet grace and formal rigour. In Walking the High Line, as in all of his work, landscape is both a social and cultural indicator.

In 2009 the High Line was converted into a public park that will preserve the delights of the High Line for future generations. Sternfeld’s book is thus a unique record of the High Line at a time when it faced demolition, and this re- print follows several sold-out editions.