Reiner Leist began taking photos from his Manhattan window in 1995, shortly after arriving in New York as a graduate student. This gallery presents the photos he took on September 14 of each year from 1995 to 2015. The same selection was released in 2016 as a book titled "Reiner Leist, Window."

Reiner Leist's apartment is located in mid-town next to Madison Square Garden and between Port Authority and Penn Station.

Leist uses two full-plate cameras for "Window." One originated in London in the 1890s, while the other model was built in the US in the 1920s.

Leist says he chose to use historic cameras to blur the boundaries between the past and present and create tension in the images.

While Leist has taken photos nearly every day for over two decades, there are a few gaps on September 14. In the book and exhibition, these are represented with a photogram.

Just one year later, New York and Washington, DC would be hit with terror attacks that would claim nearly 3,000 lives and alter world politics.

Reiner Leist was out of town on September 11, 2001 but quickly returned to New York. This nighttime photo taken just three days later reflects both a sense of shock and calm in the aftermath of the tragedy.

One year after the attacks, there was still a gaping hole in lower Manhattan. Leist's photo reveals subtle changes, but also a sense of continuity.

Leist took photos at all times of day and in every weather.

After a tragedy, "normalcy becomes a highly valued good," says Reiner Leist, adding that his routine of taking pictures was part of his return to normalcy after 9/11.

"One way of understanding my 'Window' project is to see it as a portrait of the city," the photographer told DW.

In 2006, the first decade of Reiner Leist's project was published as a book titled "Eleven Septembers."

Although Leist has lived in the US for over two decades, he still spends a lot of time in Germany. With "Window," he says, "I feel I'm trying to maintain some kind of distance and closeness at the same time."

While facades have changed and new buildings have gone up, New York's "fundamental structure has somehow remained identical," says Leist.

Leist lived in Cape Town before relocating to New York in the mid-1990s. At the time he called New York a "tough town that required respect."

Like "Window," Reiner Leist's other works tend to be long-term and often examine the relationship between individuals and society. For his renowned "American Portraits" project he traveled across America for seven years and juxtaposed his portraits of the people he met with their childhood photos.

A decade after 9/11, life goes on in the city that never sleeps.

Leist's mid-town apartment used to be part of a manufacturing district that was opened to residential use in the mid-1990s when commercial space was left unused.

Located on the 26th floor of the building, Leist's window offers a practically unparalleled view over Manattan.

In the book and exhibition, 2014 is also represented with a photogram.

Reiner Leist continues to take pictures from the window of his 8th Avenue apartment.

Long live the arts! "Viva Arte Viva" was the motto chosen for the 2017 Venice Biennale by French curator Christine Macel. The celebration of culture is well-needed in these times of uncertainty. In the Venetian Arsenal and the Giardini area, 85 nations are on show, with 120 artists exhibiting their works. Top-class exhibitions expand the world art show on the Lido.

Moving like expressionless zombies, young actors walk through the public in the German Biennale pavilion. Artist Anne Imhof set up an unsettling multimedia and performance installation dealing with the transformation of the body. She took home the Golden Lion prize for best national pavilion.

Lurid colors, blinking signs: from the outside, the Korean pavilion looks like a fun fair stand inspired by Las Vegas. Inside, the atmosphere is serious and concentrated. An artist has minutely documented a political assassination. Another installation conveys people's different tempos around the world.

A young refugee is working on a lamp's frame. Just like two years ago in Vienna, the Danish artist Olafur Eliasson set up a workshop in the Venetian Arsenal. He invites people from war-torn countries to build lamps here, a project he views as an artistic intervention and that's part of the Biennale.

An alarmingly thin person appears to be resting under the blanket of this bed. Slippers were tidily left by its side. A couple of artists from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, Yelena Vorobyeva and Viktor Vorobyev, are behind this attention-grabbing work at the Venice Biennale. Created in 1996, it is entitled "The artist sleeps."

"There was this idea that the ideal place to be was up in the air." Danish artist Soren Engsted builds humor into his sculptural works by adding text projections and a soundtrack to them. "Levitation" is his latest work. It has been well-received at the Art Biennale in Venice.

Azerbaijan picked a noble spot for its national pavilion: the Palazzo Lezze in the heart of Venice, right near the Piazza San Marco. The Azeri pavilion, however, grabbed the media's attention through a surprising statement from its German curator, Martin Roth: "Azerbaijan is a blueprint for the tolerant co-existence of people of different cultures," he said of the authoritarian state.

Argentina is presenting a real eye-catching work. With her piece "The Horse Problem," artist Claudia Fontes makes a huge white horse jump around the pavilion in the Arsenale. A life-sized figure of girl who can stop its leaps with the movement of a hand is there as well.

Czech artist Jana Zelibska filled her homeland's pavilion with a herd of swans. The installation also includes a projection of waves, and two portraits of women hang on the wall. The 76-year-old artist's work "The Swan Song: Now" is filled with poetry. Zebliska's art often deals with gender relations.

The Biennale in Venice marks the second international highlight of the current art season, which is unusually packed this year. Athens opened the program with the first part of the documenta in April. The famous German art show will then open its second part in its usual location, Kassel, in June. The international artworks shown at the Venetian Lido remain on display through November.