--- description: Katie Murray's latest book offers a unique and moving document of gender, history and place through the men of Queens, New York. title: All the Queens Men: Photographing a Man’s World in NYC’s Outer Borough image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt22d9e669fa183196/6987e3e1428a9e9c75cca151/71-11-boys-final-rgb.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [LightBox](/tag/time-section-lightbox/) ## LightBox Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # All the Queens Men: Photographing a Man's World in NYC's Outer Borough by [Joanna Lehan](/author/joanna-lehan/) ## Joanna Lehan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 18, 2013 10:09 PM CUT  11 Boys, Queens, NY 2003 11 Boys, Queens, NY 2003Katie Murray by [Joanna Lehan](/author/joanna-lehan/) ## Joanna Lehan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 18, 2013 10:09 PM CUT Photographer Katie Murray’s latest book, [**_All the Queens Men_**](http://daylightbooks.org/store/katie-murray-all-queens-men "undefined") (Daylight), has been many years in the making. Around 1999 when she began it, Murray’s project was about landscape. Landscape is a natural choice for those new to a large-format camera, as she was then, and the borough of Queens, from whence she hails, is an intriguing, under-represented subject. But along the way, the project also became about men. Murray’s close relatives and their friends became her subjects, although they’re not identified as such. Instead they stand in for a particular breed of man, working-class and tough: a distinctively New York male. Each of Murray’s photos suggest a story that goes untold: an older man pulls a younger man in for an embrace, or to tell a secret, or mutter a threat; ten shirtless, tattooed adolescents encircle another, blindfolded. Faith and family are apparent, both born like a weight; a father stares stone-faced at the camera, telltale ashes smudged on his forehead. A young man holds a naked infant protectively, his wrists ominously bandaged. In domestic interiors, men interact uncomfortably amid valanced windows and flowered wallpaper; one stands alone, staring into his drink by an elaborately decorated Christmas tree. The mix of vulnerability and aggression that initially interested Murray became freighted with different meaning after 9/11\. If the toughness of New Yorkers is embodied by these Queens men, their somber attempts to connect with the camera and to each other echoes the vulnerability and trauma of that somber day. In the portrayal of this multi-generational cast of characters, there is also a suggestion of the learned aspect of violence that men sometimes inherit from their culture. Murray received an MFA in photography from Yale in 2000, and she exhibits the unmistakable influence of the well-known contingency there; a group who embrace photography as a “fiction-making medium,” which can nevertheless convey truth. While the program’s director, Gregory Crewdson, is famous for elaborately-staged cinematic tableaux, alum and resident critic Philip-Lorca diCorcia is known in part for staged images that suggest a more internal drama. His 2003 book, _A Storybook Life,_ is a semi-narrative, semi-autobiographical masterpiece, and comes to mind as a reference point for Murray. _All the Queens Men_ employs similar devices; it mixes photos that were staged with those that were not, and characters who reappear in a shuffled chronology. In famously diverse Queens, these don’t represent all the men — instead these are Murray’s men — and her relationship to them is made more ambiguous by the introduction of fiction. If her attempts at larger truths about violence and men are often subtle, however, All the Queens Men is still a unique and moving document of gender, history and place. --- [**_Katie Murray_**](http://www.katiemurray.com/ "undefined") _is a photographer based in Queens New York._ All the Queens Men _is_ [_published by Daylight_](http://daylightbooks.org/store/katie-murray-all-queens-men "undefined")_. Murray will be_ [_speaking at New York City’s School of Visual Arts on Tuesday, Nov. 19th at 7pm_](http://www.sva.edu/events/events-exhibitions/katie-murray-in-conversation-with-maika-pollack?secret=a62f2225bf70bfaccbc7f1ef2a397836717377de "undefined")_._ **_Joanna Lehan_** _is a writer and curator living in New York City._ ---  Jonathan David, Queens, NY 1999 Katie Murray  Surfside Cinema, Queens, NY 1999 Katie Murray  Daniel, Danny, and Brian (Father and Sons), Queens, NY 2011 Katie Murray  Leon, Merrick, NY 2009 Katie Murray  Blue House 84th Street, Queens, NY 1999 Katie Murray  John (Christmas Night), Queens, NY 2002 Katie Murray  Brendan Daniel, Malverne, NY 2012 Katie Murray  Daniel and Bridgette (Ash), Queens, NY 2004 Katie Murray  Danny (Rupture), Queens, NY 2013 Katie Murray  Backyard 160th Avenue, Queens, NY 1999 Katie Murray  Scott, Queens, NY 2009 Katie Murray  Jamaica Bay, Queens, NY 2012 Katie Murray  Daniel and Susan, Port St. Lucie, FL 2012 Katie Murray  11 Boys, Queens, NY 2003 Katie Murray  88th Street, Queens, NY 2001 Katie Murray ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3804433/all-the-queens-men-photographing-a-mans-world-in-nycs-outer-borough/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3804433/all-the-queens-men-photographing-a-mans-world-in-nycs-outer-borough/"},"headline":"All the Queens Men: Photographing a Man's World in NYC's Outer Borough","datePublished":"2013-11-18T22:09:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:40:36.400Z","description":"Katie Murray's latest book offers a unique and moving document of gender, history and place through the men of Queens, New York.","url":"https://time.com/3804433/all-the-queens-men-photographing-a-mans-world-in-nycs-outer-borough/","keywords":["LightBox","New York City","9/11","Men","queens","Out There"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt22d9e669fa183196/6987e3e1428a9e9c75cca151/71-11-boys-final-rgb.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Joanna Lehan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/joanna-lehan/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt22d9e669fa183196/6987e3e1428a9e9c75cca151/71-11-boys-final-rgb.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"71 11 Boys Final RGB","caption":"11 Boys, Queens, NY 2003","creditText":"Katie Murray","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-lightbox/","name":"LightBox"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3804433/all-the-queens-men-photographing-a-mans-world-in-nycs-outer-borough/","name":"All the Queens Men: Photographing a Man's World in NYC's Outer Borough"}}]}] ```