Nurse's Home, North Brother Island, New York. Photographer Christopher Payne specializes in the documentation of America’s vanishing architecture and industrial landscape. His new book, North Brother Island: The Last Unknown Place in New York City, explores an uninhabited island of ruins in the East River of New York City. (Photo by Christopher Payne)

Drastic inequality is by no means new in New York. Jacob A. Riis was called a muckraker after he chose to spotlight the city’s poverty at the turn of the 20th century by photographing it. Here: Sweatshop in Hester Street, 1889-1890. (Photo by Jacob A. Riis/Museum of the City of New York, Gift of Roger William Riis)

A model on the catwalk for the Tom Ford show at New York fashion week in New York, USA on September 6, 2017. (Photo by Swan Gallet/Shutterstock)

Revelers march during the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, Tuesday, October 31, 2017, in New York. (Photo by Andres Kudacki/AP Photo)

Comic Con fans in costume arrive for the 1st day of the 2018 New York Comic-Con at the Jacob Javits Center on October 4, 2018. The four-day event which runs October 4-7 is the largest pop culture event on the East Coast. (Photo by Timothy A. Clary/AFP Photo)

A model presents a creation from The Blonds Autumn/Winter 2019 collection during New York Fashion Week in New York, U.S. February 12, 2019. (Photo by Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

Actor Jack Black attends the New York premiere of “Kung Fu Panda 2” at Ziegfeld Theatre on May 24, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images)

United States Marines perform a fighting demonstration in Times Square as part of Fleet Week festivities May 27, 2011 in New York City. Fleet Week, which has been held in New York since 1984, brings thousands of military members to the city where they engage the public with numerous activities, demonstrations, tours and contests. Fleet Week concludes on Memorial Day with a military flyover to honor those killed while serving in the military. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)