Joel was given a grant to photograph the parklands of New York City, a mission he accomplished with the assistance of his black Labrador Retriever, "Baron." The two went out to "chase the clouds", as Joel recalls it. This project resulted in his book, Urban Wilderness, Nature in New York City, which has a foreword written by Bill Moyers. To see New York City as you may never have imagined it, you are invited to look at our selection of images from this book.

Urban Wilderness was the first project Joel and Wendy worked together on, as they colaborated on its layout and design, prior to their wedding photography careers.