Josh Katz, Explorer-In-Chief, Moves In This Summer

Street photographer Josh Katz — the lucky winner of the Downtown Alliance’s Explorer-in-Chief contest — will take his rightful place as Lower Manhattan’s official documentarian. 

Starting in May, Katz will live and work in the neighborhood, where he’ll use his multimedia talents to capture Lower Manhattan’s public art, visitors, residents, hidden gems and local businesses. 

The Explorer-in-Chief’s job includes a stipend, top accommodations and a once-in-a-lifetime experience for an online storyteller, but in the wake of Covid-19, Katz is also tasked with documenting the recovery of a major urban neighborhood. The Alliance will use the Explorer’s reporting efforts to tell stories of people and businesses as Lower Manhattan stirs and recovers from its latest challenge. 

One of Katz’s major photographic achievements stems from New York’s stay-at-home orders in the spring: from the safety of his Brooklyn rooftop, Katz documented the rooftop culture that emerged during lockdown. Katz documented rooftop dinners and first dates, neighbors tending pigeon coops and new friends meeting for the first time (all with permission, of course). We look forward to Katz capturing the same kind of intimacy and local lifeblood in Lower Manhattan. So if you see him fiddling with his phone Downtown, say hello!