20 raw black-and-white pictures taken on the New York City streets

After realizing he wasn't going to play basketball as a career, Andre Wagner channeled his energy into photography.

Wagner, who studied social work in college, decided to become a photographer, incorporating what he had learned in his studies.

He moved from his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, to New York City, where he started graduate school but stopped after getting a studio photography job at Fab, the e-commerce website.

Last June, however, he was laid off. He dove into freelance work and his own personal project - documenting moments on the streets of New York City. He often heads to crowded areas like Midtown to capture the rush of crowds who are too busy to care about a photographer.

Since then, Wagner has exhibited in Paris and New York, and most recently in Los Angeles.

"The finances aren't always what I want them to be, but things always find a way to work themselves out," he told Business Insider. "The fact that I'm not homeless at this point, sometimes I have to pinch myself."