Celebrating the tenth anniversary of her second album, Black Terry Cat, Xenia Rubinos performed the release in its entirety at The Sultan Room on Saturday, June 6, 2026. During her set, Rubinos shared that some of the songs were being performed live for the very first time.

Kicking off the evening at 8PM was Lollise. The NYC via Botswana musician was accompanied by Morgan Greenstreet on drums and was a great way to start the night, with Rubinos commenting during her set that she witnessed Lollise live before the show and was a fan. I last saw Lollise perform in 2025 at BAM for their free music series, and was very excited to see her be a part of this bill.

Xenia’s set began shortly after 9PM with many in the audience singing and dancing along. For most of the set she was accompanied by Marco Buccelli on drums and Nicole Odreman. During “Lonely Lover” both Odreman and Xenia played bass guitar. For two Black Terry Cat tracks, Jack Hill, and Maia MacDonald performed bass, who were in the band at various parts after the album was released and it was lovely to see them return to help celebrate the album as well. The final song of the main set was “Mexican Chef” and I recorded video of it which can be found below.

After Black Terry Cat was released in 2016, I captured Xenia performing at Nosotros Festival at Lincoln Center in 2017, then a year later at MoMA, and also when she opened for Tune-Yards at Brooklyn Steel. I was so very happy to be present to commemorate a decade of this wonderful record last night.

On Thursday, June 4, 2026, the 47th season of BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn!’s annual concert series began at Lena Horne Bandshell in Prospect Park. The first show featured DJ sets by DJ Spinna (who I photographed on the same stage for their Juneteenth show in 2024), Leon Knight, and Sheila E.

Although I wasn’t scheduled to work this evening, I couldn’t pass up photographing Sheila E. as I loved her hit single “The Glamorous Life,” when I was a child and bought a used copy of this album as an adult.

The 47th season of BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! continues until mid-September and you can check out the schedule on their website. I’ll be working their next event on Saturday, June 13th.

On Friday, May 29, 2026, They Might Be Giants continued their three night stand at Brooklyn Steel in Brooklyn, NY. The band released their 24th studio album, The World Is to Dig, in April and performed different albums in their entirety each night. The second evening was their Factory Showroom record that was released 30 years ago. John Flansburgh and John Linnell were accompanied by a full band (Marty Beller on drums, Dan Miller on guitar, Danny Weinkauf on bass, plus a horn section featuring Dan Levine, Stan Harrison, and Mark Pender) and performed two full sets each night, separated by an intermission where they performed “Sapphire Bullets of Love” backwards in the first set, and played the video in reverse to begin the second set to prove they learned to perform the song backwards. They began their run of three shows at Brooklyn Steel on Thursday, May 28th and concluded on Saturday, May 31st.

Flansburgh joked that Factory Showroom would be performed along with other favorites that they didn’t rehearse, and that the album’s “vinyl copies are available nowhere...and that's not about to change” but the band’s website mentions that the album will be reissued in different platforms sometime in the future.

I covered the great show for Bowery Presents and the full gallery is now available on “The House List.”

On Wednesday, May 27, 2026, a free, sold out, noise show took place at Amant in Brooklyn, NY. The evening featured sets by MV Carbon, Noise Nomads, Aaron Dilloway, and a joint set by Bill Nace and Aaron Dilloway. The original headliner of Body/Head (Kim Gordon & Bill Nace) were unable to perform due to unforeseen circumstances but Nace and Dilloway’s set was a great way to close the loud evening.

Amant currently has Kim Gordon’s exhibition titled, “Count Your Chickens” on view through August 16th.

The 15th annual Photoville Festival is currently underway in Brooklyn Bridge Park and will close on Saturday, May 30th. I spent last weekend visiting the various images on display and enjoying the nice weekend weather (unfortunately during the past holiday weekend, it rained both days).

I have a photo on view in the Black Women Photographers exhibition titled: What We See When We Are Seen that can be seen below, and the BWP exhibition is one of the first containers in the park once you arrive (it’s across from the information area, and next to the VSCO photobooth). A few images I shot on my point and shoot camera last weekend can be found in the above gallery. When I visited on the 15th, we ended up being a part of the tour led by one of Photoville’s co-founders, Laura Roumanos, and had the chance to speak about ourselves and our work.

If you’d like to check out Photoville before it comes to an end on Saturday, please visit the official website for details and hours.

I’m extremely grateful to Photoville for exhibiting our work in their annual free festival, and to Black Women Photographers’ founder, Polly Irungu, for her curation.

On Friday, May 15, 2026, the second night of Stevie: A Life in the Key of Songs took place at Brooklyn Academy of Music in Brooklyn, NY. The series was a three night celebration of the music and life of Stevie Wonder: as one person put it, they were giving him his flowers while he is still around to receive them.

The first show on Thursday, May 14th concentrated on the albums Music of My Mind and Talking Book, while night 2 was Innervisions and Fulfillingness' First Finale. The third night on Saturday, May 16th was Songs in the Key of Life and all three nights were presented by PoetWarrior Productions and the Black Rock Coalition under the direction of Darrell M. McNeil and LaFrae Sci.

I documented the second night for BAM and images from this evening can be found in the above gallery. All three nights were reviewed by Matthew Allen for The New York Amsterdam News titled “Black Rock Coalition Honors Stevie Wonder’s Classic Albums at BAM Shows”, which features three of my images.

On Friday, May 22, 2026, Mike D. (of Beastie Boys) performed at Xanadu Roller Arts in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The influential musician was backed by a live band called 5D, and performed brand new songs and a few Beasties classics. Taking the stage at 9:10PM, Mike D. began his set with “B-Boy Bouillabaisse: Hello Brooklyn” from Paul’s Boutique which felt simultaneously like a surprise and such an obvious way to commence his first live solo performance in Brooklyn. He announced the names of his new songs (“Make It Stop” [pretty sure I caught a sample of Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force’s “Planet Rock" in it], “True Colors,” and his new single, “Switch Up”) and the Beastie Boys songs needed no introduction with many in the crowd singing along (the aforementioned “Hello Brooklyn,” “Looking Down The Barrel Of A Gun,” and the final song of his set, “So What'cha Want.")

Mike D. was backed by a band called 5D, featuring his sons, Skyler and Davis Diamond, who also are in the opening band, Very Nice Person, who that kicked off the show at 8PM. Unfortunately, I found it hard to hear the vocals during their set (they were a bit low, plus I was standing right next to the drummer). The headliner was finished by 10PM, with the audience clearing out of the roller rink so that the afterparty with DJ Qbert could begin at 10:30. Before this show, I last photographed Mike D. during the Beastie Boys Square event in September 2023, and photographed Beastie Boys only once during a benefit show at Hiro Ballroom in 2006.

Photos of both acts can be found in the above gallery, and there’s another sold out show at Xanadu tonight (Saturday, May 23rd) before Mike D. and 5D head to Europe next month. More information, plus merchandise, can be found on the Mike D 5D website.

On Tuesday, May 12, 2026, the End ICE Abuse Now! rally took place outside 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan. The building houses the Executive Office for Immigration Review. From noon to 1PM, speakers from organizations such as Hands Off NYC, New York Immigration Coalition, Working Families, Make the Road NY, Churches United for Fair Housing (CUFFH), and The Action Lab. The event came to an end with a speech and song from Tom Morello (he covered Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land”).

I captured the lunchtime rally for BrooklynVegan and the full gallery is now available on their website.

On Tuesday, May 5, 2026, Open Mike Eagle began his 50th tour at The Sultan Room in Bushwick, Brooklyn. He was joined by his tourmate, Rhys Langston, and the bill featured a local rapper, ELUCID, who performed new songs and closed his set with “The World is Dog” from his 2024 album Revelator.

Eagle’s headlining set was slightly improvised, with Mike sharing that he tried to organize it by categories but that was slightly unsuccessful. He was touring in support of his newest album, Neighborhood Gods Unlimited, but also performed a brand new song (“Out To Lunch,”) plus older ones that he hasn’t performed a long time such as “Dark Comedy Late Show,” and “Qualifiers,” which was the first time Eagle performed that song live in about six years.

Eagle’s US and Canada tour has come to an end but he’ll return to Europe later this month and those tour dates can be found here.

Videos that I captured on a miniDV camera of all three acts can be found below.

On Thursday, May 7, 2026, London’s Dry Cleaning returned to Brooklyn for a headlining set at Brooklyn Steel. They performed their newest album, Secret Love, in its entirety along with playing songs from their earlier releases. They were joined by Nashville’s Snõõper for a high energy, opening set.

I covered the stellar bill for BrooklynVegan and the full gallery is now available on their website.

On Friday, April 3, 2026, Parlor Walls (Alyse Lamb and Chris Mulligan) celebrated the release of their newest album, Big Crystal Dreams, with a record release show at Union Pool in Brooklyn. The long running duo was joined by Muscle Memory, and Gushes, with Jennae Santos of Gushes sharing that seeing Alyse’s old band (EULA) at Big Snow Buffalo Lodge years ago was an inspiration to them.

The room at Union Pool was full of friends and fans helping Parlor Walls celebrate their latest record and sharing images from that special night in the above gallery. Parlor Walls did an interview with rcmndedlisten about Big Crystal Dreams and you can check it out on their website.

On Wednesday, April 29, 2026, Doc’n Roll kicked off the fourth edition of their festival with a sold out screening of Butthole Surfers: The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt that featured a Q&A with Butthole Surfers members Paul Leary and Gibby Haynes, and director Tom Stern. The session was moderated by Creem Magazine’s Fred Pessaro, which happened after the documentary by Stern, and the audience featured long time fans of the band along with special guests Jim Jarmusch and Eric André (who appears in the documentary).

I captured the special evening for Doc’n Roll and some images can be found above or in their Instagram post. The festival continues tonight with another screening of Butthole Surfers: The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt and will come to an end next week on Thursday, May 7th.

On Saturday, April 11, 2026, the film Dreams in Nightmares premiered in New York City at Roxy Cinema in TriBeCa. There was a post screening Q&A moderated by Jourdain Searles that featured writer and director Shatara Michelle Ford, plus three actors from the film: Denée Benton, Mars Storm Rucker, Dezi Bing with Dezi revealing during the conversation that this was her film debut.

I captured a few moments before and after the screening for The Future of Film is Female, with Dreams in Nightmares being a part of their Three Films, Five Cities tour. Many thanks to Caryn of FOIFF for having me document this special event.

On Thursday, April 2, 2026, Brooklyn Academy of Music held another concert in their BAM Free Music series. The evening featured a live performance from David Rivera y La Bámbula, and DJ sets from Discolocas before and after the live set.

I captured the evening for BAM and some of that work can be found in the above gallery.

Touring in support of his newest album, Boiling Point, New Orleans rapper Juvenile headlined Racket NYC in Manhattan on Wednesday, April 22, 2026. He was joined by a backing band (a DJ and drummer), plus opening sets from comedian Marshall Brandon and Core DJ Kev. Juvenile was joined by his son, Young Juve, to perform “Hot of The Hottest” from Boiling Point, before performing his older material.

I covered the show for Bowery Presents and more photos of Juvenile are available on “The House List.” Photos of Core DJ Kev and comedian Marshall Brandon can be found in the below gallery.

On Thursday, March 8, 2026, Mclusky returned to Warsaw in Brooklyn, NY in support of their 2025 album, The World Is Still Here and So Are We, plus their EP released last month, i sure am getting sick of this bowling alley, both released by Ipecac Records.

Mclusky were joined by the long running Pile, who were performing at Warsaw for the very first time. Before Mclusky’s set, I met a couple up front who found the band via Peaky Blinders (their song, “People Person,” is featured in the soundtrack to The Immortal Man) and I was so thrilled to see new fans who were about to experience an act who I have loved seeing perform live (and have enjoyed for over two decades now).

I covered the loud and fun show for BrooklynVegan and the full set is now available on their website.

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of their debut album, Bang Bang Rock & Roll, Art Brut began their three night stand at Mercury Lounge in Manhattan, the first place they ever played in the New York City two decades ago (I caught them the same year for the first time at Bowery Ballroom, which is double the size of Mercury, and a second time in the summer of 2006 during Siren Festival at Coney Island). The band performed the record in its entirety (not in track order) when their set began about 7:14PM on the first night on Tuesday, April 7th, after a 6:30PM opening set by Matt Hitt. Last night was the second show of their US tour (the tour began in Philadelphia the night before at Johnny Brenda’s).

Although it had been a long time since I caught Art Brut live, I’m pleased to report they’re still an extremely fun act, with vocalist Eddie Argos sharing anecdotes about songs, while also being humorous throughout the course of their hour plus set. He revealed that he actually does have a younger brother who inspired “My Little Brother,” that was 22 when the song was written who is currently 45 years old, and advised us against putting someone’s age in one’s song lyrics. For “Modern Art,” he said at the time he had only visited Tate Modern and the Pompidou, but has now added a third museum to the list: The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. During “Modern Art,” Argos left the stage and went into the crowd and had people kneel on the floor and asked them to jump up when he got to the number 743 and started at the number one (thankfully for those on the floor, he skipped many numbers). Before the band played “Fight!”, Argos shared they hadn’t played the song in a long time before the previous night due to a fight happening during one of their performances (he was pleased that we refrained from fighting each other during the song). At the end of their set, he introduced all members of the band* as Art Brut then declared everyone in attendance as Art Brut too, and encouraged us to start our own bands (he pointed at people at random, including myself, and told us to start a band together).

Photos from the first night at Mercury Lounge can be viewed in the above gallery, and Art Brut will return to the same stage again tonight, and tomorrow with different acts supporting (My Wonderful Boyfriend on Wednesday, 4/8, and Laptop on Thursday, 4/9). Their tour of the US and Canada continues through April 24th.

*Art Brut band members in 2026 besides Eddie Argos are: Ian Catskilkin (guitar and backing vocals), Olga Karatzioti-Bakopoulou (bass and backing vocals), Tobias Humble (drums) and Zeb Carlisle (guitar and backing vocals).

Art Brut at Mercury Lounge on Tuesday, April 7, 2026
Formed a Band
My Little Brother
Emily Kane
Rusted Guns of Milan
Moving to L.A.
Arizona Bay
Bang Bang Rock & Roll
Stand Down
18,000 Lira
These Animal Menswe@r
Good Weekend

Encore:
Pump Up the Volume
She Kissed Me (And It Felt Like a Hit)
Wham! Bang! Pow! Let's Rock Out!

On Sunday, March 8, 2026, 2026 Women’s Strike NYC Fest took place at Maria Hernandez Park in Bushwick, Brooklyn. This year’s event had the slogan of “Care beats hate. Our love melts ICE,” which was said by people in attendance periodically on a unusually warm day. March 8th is International Women’s Day and many of the organizations centered on political organizations centering women, such as Thank God for Abortion, National Women's Liberation, New York Abortion Access Fund, and Red Canary Song. There were performances, demonstrations, opportunities for learning, screenprinting, and tabling by various organizations which included New York City Democratic Socialists of America.

I stopped by the event for a few hours that Sunday and shot the above gallery on film. These images were made with Nikon F100 and Kodak Portra 35mm film or Polaroid 600.

Today, April 3, 2026 is the twentieth anniversary of when I registered the domain of thisisnotaphotograph.com. I feel extremely grateful to still be making images and publishing them online two decades later. Here’s the first ever blog post I created back on April 15, 2006.

On Sunday, February 22, 2026, Mahjong Palace held a collab event with Nine Orchard hotel to bring people to play the game of mahjong. The event occurred just before New York City experienced its first blizzard in a decade, but the East Room at Nine Orchard in Chinatown made it a perfect setting for a cozy afternoon.

I am sharing a gallery of images that I created for the event that can be found above.

On Friday, March 27, 2026, Pennsylvania’s Pissed Jeans returned to Brooklyn for a headlining show at Market Hotel in Bushwick, Brooklyn, for a show booked by Scenic Presents (I last caught the band in August 2024 Roberta’s). The quartet’s headlining set was completed before 10PM as the venue was hosting a Bad Bunny themed party that was scheduled to begin an hour later. Before the end of their set, Pissed Jeans vocalist Matt Korvette joked that for all his adult life, a party would begin “after ME!”

The long running band played songs off their 2024 album, Half Divorced (“Killing All The Wrong People,” “Junktime,” and “Movin On”) plus other older material (final song was “False Jesii Part II” from King of Jeans and there wasn’t an encore) with Matt promising those in attendance that they’ll return soon. Opening for Pissed Jeans on Friday night were NYC acts Pyrex and The Exorzist III, with Pyrex kicking off the show at 7:45PM.