I’ve never crossed an empty Cooper Square — there are always people coming up out of the entrance for the 6, in line at the Mud Truck, messing around with the cube. Homeless guys, fruit cart guys, drunk college students. It’s not where I would have thought to look for a clean, minimalist image, but a few weekends ago when I was standing at the corner of Eighth Street, across from the Starbucks, I pointed my camera down and found an abstract geometry in the lines formed by crosswalk paint and the edge of the curb. Then the light changed and there were people walking through my photograph.

In this ground’s-eye view of pedestrian traffic, I see a purer, more abstracted sense of motion, removed from the particular or individual, yet still very human — like watching the people move through a city from many stories above the street.

With the exception of one pair, these feet more or less resemble each other — yet the blur of a heel or length of stride makes it immediately clear whether they are hurrying or meandering, and whether they belong to purposeful or casual walkers.

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We sense speed and motion and can imagine something about the figures in these pictures — how fast they’re moving, where they might be heading — without seeing their faces.

Isabel Gottlieb is a graduate of Brown University, now working in public relations. She lives in the East Village and posts her work here.