New York likes to think of itself as a city of skyscrapers and mighty avenues, but at another level it’s really just a sloshing ground for muskrats and local waterfowl. Nathan Kensinger discovered how watery the city is when he started photographing New York’s hidden landscapes.

He’d head for an undeveloped sliver of land, start whacking his way through the bushes, and pretty soon he would find himself in front of a stream or creek that did not exist on Google Maps. Even the neighbors often did not know it was there, he said.