Through my work I look to transport viewers to important places or moments in time. Starting in 1973, when I rowed out to then-abandoned Ellis Island to photograph its ruins, I’ve researched and documented many places of historic, cultural, or political significance through photographs, books and immersive photo-based installations, hoping to bring their stories into the present. These deep explorations, often involving material in archives, are often driven by my own personal history and reflections living through several tumultuous decades in American history. — Phil Buehler

Buehler’s most recent body of work involves large-scale public photo murals and walk-in panoramic photographs that transport people to places of current cultural and political upheaval – to help them travel outside familiar frames and narratives.

Stepping inside or walking close to these incredibly detailed and immersive photographic installations, visitors may walk away with a different perspective about a person, place, or cause they thought they knew all about. These also stimulate articles in the media, helping spread their messages further.

These enormous public artworks – photo murals and cycloramas – paradoxically create intimate and engaging experiences. Each is made from 30-50 individual high-resolution photographs stitched together using software to create enormous images that can been printed in lengths up to 100 feet. Finding suitable installation sites is part of my process and involves engaging with various communities. “Please Don’t Forget Us: Irpin” is one example. This photo mural documents the toll the invasion of Ukraine by Russia with an almost life-sized photograph of the civilian car cemetery in Irpin. It was installed for two months on a construction fence in the Little Ukraine neighborhood of NYC in October of 2023. Timed to precede a critical vote in Congress for funding to support Ukraine, its message was spread further through news media.

Other public mural installations include Re:Generation, 2021, which marked the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race massacre. A Black Baptist Church that had been burned down in 1921 and later rebuilt was wrapped on four sides with 35-foot-long, 10-foot-tall panoramic murals of the aftermath of the massacre fromnegatives taken in 1921. In the month leading up to the 2020 Presidential Election, Phil created the “Wall of Lies,” a 100-foot-long, 10-foot-tall mural documenting the more than 20,000 lies told by President Trump, color-coded by topic as fact checked by the Washington Post. The wall was installed in Bushwick, Brooklyn as well as SoHo in New York City, garnered worldwide press, and was visited by then Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer

Buehler also creates cycloramas, or walk-in panoramic photographs to transport viewers to places of cultural significance. An example is “Please Don’t Forget Us: Borodyanka,” a walk-in panoramic photograph or cyclorama. Installed in Times Square in March of 2024, it served as the centerpiece of the rally with imagery that could be spread widely through social media. Each cyclorama is created from 50 to 1,000 high-resolution photographs using stitching software which are then mounted inside a cylindrical 8-foot-diameter aluminum frame that can be set up in under an hour.

Buehler often collaborates with not-for-profit groups with whom he shares a common message. For example, over the past five years has worked closely with Bird of Light Ukraine, Black Lives Matter, Radio Free Brooklyn, the Woody Guthrie Center, Bring Kids Back Ukraine, and Paradise Baptist Church. He has served on the boards of art organizations including HERE Arts Center, Momenta Art, and currently Bird of Light Ukraine and Radio Free Brooklyn.

His artwork has been exhibited widely, including PS1/MOMA and the Bronx Museum and solo exhibitions at Front Room Gallery in Manhattan and Hudson, NY. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Art in America, Art Nexus, artnet, Hyperallergic, Gothamist, Ocula, Art F City, American Photo, The Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, and New York Magazine. Buehler holds an MFA from the School of Visual Arts and a BA in Mathematics and Art from Rutgers University where he will have a solo exhibition at the Mason Gross School of Art in the summer of 2026.

One can see No Man Is An Island in St. Nicholas Park along St. Nicholas Avenue near 138th Street and in Jackie Robinson Park along Bradhurst Avenue near 147th Street. Support for this installation was given by New York State Council of the Arts.