It is nothing new that we must reconsider our relationships with other species if we are to make ends meet in the times ahead. Nor is it new that we must rebuild our connections with non-humans and deconstruct our conception of the city to include more than ourselves in urban planning.

The city rarely gives other species space to relax, pushing them out wherever it can—paving over, revitalizing, and tidying up. Yet sometimes, when we veer off the street into the surviving patches of bushes, and if we’re lucky, we might find river. Perhaps we’ll even notice its beauty, quiet under a viaduct, fighting against marginalization—persistent, as it is known to be. In alliance with beavers, for itself, despite us and for us.

When we turn back toward the river, we’ll see majestic waterfalls, breathtakingly winding oxbow lakes, proudly resisting regulation. We’ll also see thriving greenery, nourished by the swift flow of water, inviting animals to inhabit it—animals among which humans are by no means the majority.

In this series, I explore the “wild” corners of the city I live in—Poznań, Poland—where streams, rivers, brooks, ponds, and small bodies of water flow. Using a camera trap, I observe who inhabits these spaces and how urban life unfolds among those who are often overlooked in spatial planning. Through photography, I aim to create awe-inspiring landscapes that draw on aesthetics we associate more with national parks or nature reserves than with urban underbrush. In doing so,

I hope that, perhaps through beauty rather than cautionary tales, we might recognize the other species with whom we must form communities in order to live.