  Portraits of Nathan Kensinger © Nate Dorr |
Nathan Kensinger is an artist and journalist based in Brooklyn, New York whose work explores hidden urban landscapes, post-industrial ecologies, forgotten waterways, environmental contamination, and coastal communities endangered by sea level rise and climate change. His work encompasses photography, film, installation, curation and writing.Since 2006, Kensinger has created a series of photo essays, documentary films, public art projects, and video installations about New York City’s changing landscapes. This work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Museum of the City of New York, Brooklyn Museum, Queens Museum, and Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, and screened internationally at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Danish Film Institute, National Museum of Cinema in Italy, and Ministry of Culture of Peru. His work has been featured in The New Yorker, New York Times, PBS NewsHour, National Public Radio, and the 5th National Climate Assessment.
Kensinger has created public art installations in New York City’s Superfund sites, public parks, sewage facilities and subway system, in collaboration with the NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Department of Parks & Recreation (DPR), Economic Development Corporation (EDC), and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). His work has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Council, Brooklyn Arts Council, Partnerships for Parks, and Hudson River Foundation. In 2021, he was selected as one of the “25 New Faces of Independent Film” by Filmmaker Magazine. Kensinger is currently directing a feature length documentary about sea level rise and coastal resiliency in New York City. He previously wrote and photographed the Camera Obscura column at Curbed (2012-2020), wrote about environmental issues for Gothamist/WNYC (2020-2024), and was the Photo Urbanism Fellow at the Design Trust for Public Space (2024-2025). He is currently a Senior Fellow at the New York City College of Technology’s Brooklyn Waterfront Research Center, and a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Filmmaking at Rutgers University. |