Fascinated by the underground interiors of the New York City subway, with their wide, open spaces, metal columns between roof and floor and almost sacred play of light and shadow, Masayo Nishimura began photographing subway stations on the Upper West Side in 1999, first in black and white and, from 2000, in colour. Shot with slow shutter speeds, the pictures render light and shadow like medieval churches and religious paintings, and the layering of time quietly presses in. In September 2001, during a solo exhibition at Soho Photo Gallery, the World Trade Center was destroyed a few blocks to the south; the photographs carry the radiant New York of the time before 9/11. The book brings together both series, shot in a New York that no longer exists.