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Photos: Uncensored Moments in Central Park

“The Park 25.” © Lauren Henkin. Image courtesy of the artist and Foley Gallery, New York.
Year: 2013 Photo: Lauren Henkin

It’s often said that Central Park is New Yorkers’ collective backyard, and that may be why so many of us treat it as our own nearly private space. Spend time in the Park during the summer, and you see people laying out, pigging out, hanging out, in markedly unguarded ways. The photographer Lauren Henkin — in a series of up-close shots* — has begun to collect parkgoers in those strikingly loose moments, where they’ve shed shoes, dozed off, or stripped half-naked. She plays with space and scale, playing up big trees and giant buildings against intimate human moments. Most of all, though, she grabs people sprawling uninhibitedly, as if they own the place. Which, in fact, they do.

“The Park 18.” © Lauren Henkin. Image courtesy of the artist and Foley Gallery, New York.
Year: 2013 Photo: Lauren Henkin
“The Park 27.” © Lauren Henkin. Image courtesy of the artist and Foley Gallery, New York.
Year: 2013 Photo: Lauren Henkin
“The Park 26.” © Lauren Henkin. Image courtesy of the artist and Foley Gallery, New York.
Year: 2013 Photo: Lauren Henkin
“The Park 43.” © Lauren Henkin. Image courtesy of the artist and Foley Gallery, New York.
Year: 2013 Photo: Lauren Henkin
“The Park 8.” © Lauren Henkin. Image courtesy of the artist and Foley Gallery, New York.
Year: 2013 Photo: Lauren Henkin
“The Park 28.” © Lauren Henkin. Image courtesy of the artist and Foley Gallery, New York.
Year: 2013 Photo: Lauren Henkin
“The Park 17.” © Lauren Henkin. Image courtesy of the artist and Foley Gallery, New York.
Year: 2013 Photo: Lauren Henkin
“The Park 23.” © Lauren Henkin. Image courtesy of the artist and Foley Gallery, New York.
Year: 2013 Photo: Lauren Henkin
“The Park 37.” © Lauren Henkin. Image courtesy of the artist and Foley Gallery, New York.
Year: 2013 Photo: Lauren Henkin/? Lauren Henkin. All rights reserved.
“The Park 36.” © Lauren Henkin. Image courtesy of the artist and Foley Gallery, New York.
Year: 2013 Photo: Lauren Henkin
“The Park 20.” © Lauren Henkin. Image courtesy of the artist and Foley Gallery, New York.
Year: 2013 Photo: Lauren Henkin

Henkin’s series, called “The Park,” is at Foley Gallery through June 8.

*This post has been corrected to show that Henkin doesn’t use a telephoto lens.

Photos: Uncensored Moments in Central Park