From 2020-2024 John Tymkiw photographed over 1,000 of the 10,000+ outdoor dining shelters that appeared during the Covid-19 pandemic. Hundreds of these photos have been published in six volumes of books titled How We Ate.

Lenient regulations, designed to save restaurants, unintentionally resulted in the flourishing of a kind of urban DIY folk-architecture. These unique structures added a whole new layer to the urban fabric of New York. Until regulations were tightened in November 2024, this creativity was on display in virtually every neighborhood of the city.

This body of work serves as a critical visual archive of a unique period in the city’s history, capturing the intersection of public policy, economic necessity, and spontaneous creativity for future generations to study and remember.