For this series, I sought out subjects in liminal spaces — places outside homes, transit hubs, as well as secluded or marginal places where there is a particular kind of lonely poetry. I met a man who, for years, has lovingly raised pigeons along Newtown Creek in the narrow green space between a factory and the creek. Each day, he travels from the Bronx to Maspeth to feed and care for his birds, who live in the coop he built. I met an angelic-looking teenager on an abandoned elevated rail line in Queens who told me she loves how peaceful and quiet it is and that she likes to "come here and just think.” In the Port Authority bus terminal, I encountered an older couple from Pennsylvania who were traveling to see their children and grandchildren. They shared their candy with me before boarding the bus. A young man from Florida smoking a cigarette outside the bus terminal was on his way to upstate New York to help a relative recently diagnosed with cancer. I also sought out veterans in VFWs and American Legions whose clubs, which are like second homes for their members, are slowly dissolving due to dwindling enrollment.

It can be disorienting to exist in these spaces, where certainties temporarily dissolve, where we often aren’t sure what's coming next. 

Maureen Drennan (@maureenrdrennan) is a photographer born and based in New York City. Her work has been included in exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC, the Tacoma Art Museum Seattle, Washington, the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Aperture, Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, Colorado Photographic Arts Center, and the Newspace Center for Photography, amongst others.

Her images have been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, California Sunday Magazine, Huffington Post, Photograph Magazine, Photo District News, American Photo, UK Telegraph, Refinery 29, and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.

She currently teaches at LaGuardia Community College and the International Center for Photography in New York City.