Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb: Brooklyn, the City Within - Hardcover

Brooklyn, the City Within: A Photographic Portrait

Brooklyn is one of the most dynamic and ethnically diverse places on the planet. This acclaimed photography book captures five years of work by renowned photographers Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb, offering an intimate portrait of Brooklyn's cultural landscape. With one in every eight US families having relatives who came through Brooklyn when settling in America, this borough represents the heart of the immigrant experience.

Dual Perspectives on Brooklyn's Identity

Alex Webb brings four decades of international photography experience to document every corner of Brooklyn, exploring the tremendous diversity that mirrors his global work. His photographs capture the borough's multicultural neighborhoods, street life, and the convergence of cultures that now define his home.

Rebecca Norris Webb takes a contrasting approach, focusing on "the city within the city within the city"—Brooklyn's green heart. Her work documents the Botanic Garden, Greenwood Cemetery, and Prospect Park, spaces where Brooklynites from all backgrounds find common ground and solace. Originally a poet, she brings a contemplative eye to the relationship between urban dwellers and natural spaces.

A Larger American Story

Together, their photographs transcend Brooklyn itself, telling a broader American narrative about immigration, identity, and what home means in contemporary America. This hardcover volume from Aperture combines documentary photography with artistic vision, creating a visual record of one of America's most significant urban communities.

About the Photographers

Alex Webb has published more than fifteen books, including Memory City (2014, with Rebecca Norris Webb), La Calle: Photographs from Mexico (Aperture, 2016), and The Suffering of Light (Aperture, 2011). A full member of Magnum Photos since 1979, Webb has received numerous awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2007.

Rebecca Norris Webb has created seven photography books exploring the relationship between people and nature, including The Glass Between Us (2006), Violet Isle: A Duet of Photographs from Cuba (2009, with Alex Webb), and My Dakota (2012). A 2019 NEA grant recipient, her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Sean Corcoran, curator of prints and photographs at the Museum of the City of New York, contributes an essay. His extensive writing on photography includes work for Elliott Erwitt: At Home and Around the World (Aperture, 2016) and I See a City: Todd Webb's New York (2017).