Space Walking / Joseph Ostraff

This ongoing series presents visual materials gathered during walks through high-density urban areas, rural communities, and expansive open landscapes. Each walk produces a collection of images organized in different ways, engaging with the processes that transform space into place.

Each location has been named and renamed, defined and redefined, across generations—every act of naming reshaping the space anew. These walks focus on observations, questions, and ideas tied to activities such as mapping, assigning value, designating purpose and use, establishing ownership, constructing permissions, and evoking nostalgia. These books serve as a recognition that I, too, participate in this ongoing cycle.