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2025 Submission Highlights

A selection of our submissions from summer 2025.

ByQueens College logoQueens College
1
Flushing Meadow Park

Photo courtesy of Alexandra Johnson

Photo courtesy of Alexandra Johnson

Protester in Corona

2
Tribeca Roof

Photo Courtesy of Andrew Kass

Photo courtesy of Andrew Kass

Church and Chambers roof, with spencer & jack

3
Tompkins Square Park

Photo courtesy of Cole Giordano

Professional skateboarders Marcello Campanello and Carlisle Aikens go shirtless to cool off and unwind after a skate session on a hot day in the East Village.

4
West 88th Street

Photo courtesy of Drew Carolan

After a baseball game in Riverside Park a young man stops at a fire hydrant to cool off.

5
Harlem

Photo courtesy of June Koffi

The photo is of my aunt and her friend sitting on stoop in Harlem.

6
Manhattan Beach

Photo courtesy of Karen Bell

Before my time! The 2 women are my mother and her sister at Manhattan Beach 1939. My mother, the dark haired woman on the left, was 15 at the time, her sister, 19.

7
Thompson Street Pool

Photo courtesy of Karen Bell

I was photographing kids at NYC playgrounds. The boys at the pool were preening for the girls on the other side of the fence.

8
Queensboro Plaza Station

Photo courtesy of Kitty Katz

Queensboro Plaza station—101 DEGREES on the platform

9
297 15th Street

Photo courtesy of Larry Racioppo

I took this photo from the window of my apartment.

10
Coney Island

Photo courtesy of Michael Castellano

You can see the Seagram billboard in the rear left, the tornado roller coaster next to it and the Wonder Wheel to the rear right.

11
Harlem

Photo courtesy of Mir Finkelman

I took this photo of my mother at my father's apartment, a few years after their divorce. I spent a lot of time in the darkroom at the International Center of Photography burning in the window to get the fan visible, which I find sort of amusing, as it mimics the heat coming through the window in the moment of capture.

12
Bedford Stuyvesant

Photo courtesy of Nadira Gupta

Photo courtesy of Nadira Gupta

Photo courtesy of Nadira Gupta

Photo courtesy of Nadira Gupta

Photo courtesy of Nadira Gupta

Photo courtesy of Nadira Gupta

Photo courtesy of Nadira Gupta

On a sunny 105F day in Brooklyn, NYC, I stopped at an open fire hydrant to cool off. Happen to share it with someone passing by. Sharing a moment with strangers, connecting and commiserating over the scorching heat while enjoying the cool refreshing water.

13
The High Line

Photo courtesy of Noam Oster

Two kids on the highline, Chelsea, 2018.

Sources:

Submitted in 2025.

14
Flatbush and Nostrand Avenue

Photo courtesy of Shalom Haileselassie

Commute from Brooklyn to Riis on a hot summer day

15
Circle Line

Photo courtesy of Susan Wittenberg

Circle Line - this was the first summer I lived in NYC after college. We took the Circle Line to cool off in the heat.

16
East 16th Street and Avenue C

Photo courtesy of Thomas Comiskey

On hot days, my Stuyvesant Town friends and I would fill up a cooler, cross Avenue C to the benches on the East River Drive walkway, and listen to tunes while watching the seaplanes land at 23rd Street.

17
Orchard Beach

Photo courtesy of Will Ragozzin

The first time I visited Orchard Beach was a hot day in late May of 2016. I think it was Memorial Day weekend. I was with my girlfriend. As we were walking on the beach I noticed two girls buried in the sand. I also noticed the two girls in the foreground, with snacks and a beach umbrella on its side, laying to a 90 degree angle to each other which formed a pattern leading to the girls buried under the sand in the background. As I was framing up the shot, a lifeguard carrying a "Surf Rescue" surfboard appeared in the right side of the frame just as another lifeguard with whistle in his mouth came from the left side. In a split second, all the elements came together, with other beachgoers and umbrellas in the background filling out the frame. As a photographer, I know how difficult it is to get single shot of multiple disparate elements coming together in a way that brings the viewer into the vibe of the scene. I didn't need my DSLR to capture the moment...the iphone did the trick.