It’s easy to walk by them during the day. At night, like actors in a spotlight, they demanded my attention. As I walked my own New York City neighborhood, I photographed these storefront window mannequins from the street as I passed by.

I was drawn to the theatricality of their self-contained worlds, which seem complete onto themselves. Their theatrical tableaux pose poignant questions: What makes us human? How do we each create our own identity? How fragile is that identity? How fragile is our own humanity? They suggest a future shared with A.I., in virtual worlds. They speak to our vulnerability, our mortality, and the constant possibility of dislocation.

Through the close-up of my lens, the love they were created with is marvelous to me.