Staten Island - Unseen Photographs of New York City’s Forgotten Borough

In the 1970s Staten Island was undergoing major infrastructure changes and a huge population expansion. It was ten years after the opening of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, which connected the island to Brooklyn in 1964 and, for the first time, to the rest of the city by land.

It also had a reputation for being provincial compared to the rest of the city and still does today. In the early eighties, photographer Christine Osinski was looking for a new home with her husband after high rents forced them out of their Soho apartment in Manhattan.

A family in their front yard

A goat, two ducks and a horse, graze on an undeveloped plot of land in a new neighborhood near the Staten Island Mall

A horse at block party

A teenage girl mows the lawn on the corner of Naughton Ave

A young boy brushing his hair after a swim at the beach

A young boy with a BB gun points toward a car at Miller Field, Staten Island

A young man pulling a go-kart

Dog in the front yard of a ranch style home

Girl with nail polish

House with spiral bushes bordering the entrance to the garage

Intertwined couple at South Beach

Man on chaise lounge at the beach

Man putting oil in his Chrysler Cordoba in front of his home

Midway Diner and tank during a parade

Pre teen

Putti on the wall of a house

Sisters with matching dresses

The entrance to a new neighborhood called Forest View Estates

Two boys pose with a car

Two construction workers repair the roof of a four column porch

Two young girls at the beach

Two young girls pose with a car

Two young men with beer at the beach

Two young women in matching outfits in front of an open air garage

Woman with children at South Beach

(via TIME LightBox)