Isabella Zhou

( 2026.10.01 )

East Side Story

Lower Manhattan → Sunset Park, New York · 3:31 – 6:30 PM

This time, at last, I came to New York with the one I love. We were done reaching for the big picture and done trying to capture everything, so we stayed inside this one frame, and looked, and kept looking, until we could find, possibly, possibly, how it was. And how it has been, all along. Two hours and fifty-nine minutes, eleven takes.

Fujifilm X-E5 · 23mm · eleven takes · New York

take 01 · Beekman Street3:31 pm
A Financial District street canyon, a school bus and a man crossing with two children

The city opens mid-sentence; nobody waits for the cut.

23mm · ƒ/3.6 · 1/80 · ISO 80

take 02 · from Brooklyn Bridge4:01 pm
The midtown skyline across rooftops, framed by the bridge's beams

The establishing shot. We used to begin and end here.

23mm · ƒ/6.4 · 1/125 · ISO 64

take 03 · the promenade4:02 pm
The crowded bridge boardwalk, One World Trade rising behind

Everyone on the boardwalk is directing a version of their own.

23mm · ƒ/6.4 · 1/105 · ISO 100

take 04 · exit only4:22 pm
The cables parting toward Brooklyn, green exit signs at the roadway

The cables agree, for once, on where to look.

23mm · ƒ/6.4 · 1/60 · ISO 64

take 05 · Washington Street4:49 pm
The Manhattan Bridge tower above Dumbo, souvenir sweatshirts under umbrellas

The word NEW YORK sells for twenty-five dollars; the bridge gives it away.

23mm · ƒ/6.4 · 1/60 · ISO 64

take 06 · the birds5:04 pm
A flock scattering across clouds above the Manhattan Bridge tower

A flock drifts through, rewriting the scene above the tower.

23mm · ƒ/5.6 · 1/320 · ISO 100

take 07 · Water Street5:06 pm
Brooklyn Bridge and the flag in black and white, suits crossing the cobblestones

Some takes come back already in black and white.

23mm · ƒ/6.4 · 1/60 · ISO 64

take 08 · by the carousel5:08 pm
One World Trade and the bridge above the glass house of Jane's Carousel

The carousel keeps its horses; the skyline keeps its cranes.

23mm · ƒ/6.4 · 1/60 · ISO 64

take 09 · Pebble Beach5:29 pm
Rows of people seated on the stone steps under the Manhattan Bridge, lit gold

The choir in the sunlight.

23mm · ƒ/6.4 · 1/125 · ISO 80

take 10 · Sunset Park6:10 pm
A dusk lawn above two skylines, a man lying in the grass photographing the sky

Someone lies down in the grass and films nothing but sky.

23mm · ƒ/6.4 · 1/100 · ISO 64

take 11 · last light6:30 pm
A branch over a pink and blue evening sky, the far skyline, friends on the lawn

End credits: a branch, a pink sky, the city far away, nothing missing.

23mm · ƒ/6.4 · 1/30 · ISO 64

( about )

I’m Isabella Zhou. Photography lends me wings toward a dreamland I haven’t found yet, and these journals are what I carry back from the flights. This one is proof that a single frame, looked at together, can hold more than a skyline. Kept on a Fujifilm X-E5 with one 23mm lens.

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isabellayifan.zhou@gmail.com

© 2026 Isabella Zhou — all photographs shot on Fujifilm X-E5