New York City – it’s a metropolis of many facets, discernible even to the uninitiated. Filtered through its five boroughs, the distinctions between neighborhoods and the diasporas that shape each district contribute to the multi-layered makeup of the city, and the shifts in energy experienced when traveling within its bounds.

In short film WIP, director Kalum Ko takes a 600km walk through New York’s streets, traversing its boroughs and capturing the chance encounters collected along the way. Hailing from the Canadian Rockies, the director and photographer shot the film handheld and entirely on foot, projecting an intimacy that finds poetry in the city’s realness.

Created with the support of Common Good, WIP captures New York’s essence in fragments of conversations, serving as a document of the city through the unconnected yet harmonizing contemplations of the characters who’ve made it home – no one quite like the other.