While others on the street are staring at their smartphones, King is looking up, capturing the sculptures that ever-so-subtly change the space all around us, uploading the images to his Instagram, collecting them in books (his third, Figures in Stone, is on shelves now) or spotlighting them in exhibitions. His latest show on City Islandwhich sits just off mainland Bronx in the Long Island sound, and where he now lives after spending most of his life in Harlemopened June 2nd.

Our hour-long walking tour begins at a building at 181st Street and Fort Washington Avenue. Most buildings with interesting stone details date back to between 1850 and 1930; this ones smog-stained facade has seen better days, but a line of stone figures had caught Kings attention as he traveled to a nearby renovation job.

Sometimes I feel like these details talk to me, King says. He means it. What else besides a very interesting conversation could keep him photographing for decades? King began his hobby while taking a class on women in photography. His teacher gave an unusual assignment: Capture the image of women he didnt know. King felt too awkward photographing strangers, so turned his camera to women carved in stone instead. I got an A, he said, with a smile.

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The Photographer Capturing the New York You've Never Noticed - Artsy