French by birth and German by heritage, Feininger was part of a wave of European immigration to the United States at the outbreak of World War II, where he became one of the most prolific photographers of the 20th century, completing more than 430 assignments for Life magazine between 1943 and 1962. He had trained as an architect before turning to photography, a background that contributed to the striking and innovative black-and-white images he made of New York City.

In this photograph of a cemetery in Queens, Feininger captured the hilly, pastoral setting crowded with tombstones, broken only by the occasional tree or power line. The viewer’s eye is given no place to rest, instead roving continually over the congested composition, an approach similar to the contemporaneous “allover painting” of the abstract expressionists.

—Text taken from the Carter Handbook (2023)