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New York Magazine's Look Book chronicles the stylish comings and goings of the residents of Gotham. It also proves that whether your day job involves operating phones, walking dogs, being a six-year-old, or litigating cases, you don't look have to look like it. Not in New York, anyway. Nightclub doormen sport dashing scarves; nursing students pull on the tallest, most electrifying heels; and vegan pastry chefs, well, do their thing. Of course, some bouncers and hedge-fund managers and opera lovers come dressed as one might guess, and that's pleasing, too. John Waters peeks in, sporting his "disaster at the dry cleaner" garb (impeccable). Designer Cynthia Rowley strikes a chic pose (three cheers for striped stockings!). And Miss Teen USA 2004 leaps past in rain boots (good luck with the "model-slash-actor" thing). This being New York, nobody bats an eye, and everyone keeps on looking.

Two guys from Brooklyn do a series of photo essays about people from Brooklyn. Is that hyperfocus to the nth degree, or what? Fugheddaboudit. There's a wide spectrum of people called The Brooklynites. We're talking about the fourth-largest city in the United States over here. Photographer Seth Kushner and writer Anthony LaSala have lots to say and show about their hometown, as do the folks that reside in New York's biggest borough, both famous and non. The authors, the actors, and the athletes all prove there is no such thing as the average Brooklynite. Each is special. And their focused words and radiant images help us see that this city—a little like resident Billy T. Thomas —is "older than cold water and sweeter than salt." Way sweeter.

As much as award-winning photojournalist Brenda Ann Kenneally's web site is about a drug-infested Brooklyn neighborhood; as much as it shows kids with guns and broken families on drugs; and as much as it zooms in on up-and-coming rapper Big Trigg to reveal "what the streets done did to that kid"; Kenneally's site is also a moving, graphic, and audible testament to her photographic and journalistic skills. Kenneally's work does what all journalism should do: It tells real stories within a small, but dense space and tells it like it is, unapologetically, yet sympathetically. Many of us may not want to know what it's really like to live in poverty, in jail, on drugs, or without our loved ones, but with gripping sites such as Kenneally's, we can at least try to understand.