Few artists capture the soul of New York City quite like Joseph DiGiovanna. A cinematographer, photographer, and composer, Joseph is based just across the Hudson River from the heart of the city, in Weehawken, New Jersey.
His work sits at the intersection of Broadway, fashion, music, and Hollywood, having captured icons like Beyoncé, Tom Hanks, Kim Kardashian, and Gigi Hadid. His work has also appeared in some of the biggest publications in the industry, such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, and The New York Times Style Magazine.
What sets Joseph’s work apart is his signature marriage of artistry and technology. Whether he’s shooting a high-fashion campaign for Gucci or capturing an off-Broadway performance, his work radiates a similar energy to the city itself: dynamic, timeless, and creative.
Recently, on one of Joseph’s career’s biggest projects, he faced a data-related setback. Fortunately, he soon reached out to us at Secure Data Recovery and we were able to avert the crisis. Before we dive into the details of his data loss, let’s take a closer look at his work.
Capturing New York City’s Heartbeat
In 2015, Joseph DiGiovanna began an extraordinary project: to capture every sunrise, every skyline shift, and every fleeting change in New York City—for thirty years straight.
The idea started off as a simple one for Joseph: to document the beautiful view from his Weehawken apartment window. Since then, though, it’s evolved into one of the largest, most ambitious photographic projects ever attempted: the NYC TimeScape.
With a mission to run continuously from 2015 to 2046, the NYC TimeScape project uses an array of Sony A7 cameras, a GoPro, and a Sony A6000— each tethered to Mac Minis and external drives, all automated by custom scripts that trigger a photo every 30 seconds.
Over the years, this setup has produced millions of images—roughly 25 million at the time of writing—chronicling everything from foggy mornings to glowing sunsets across the Hudson.
NYC TimeScape is, undoubtedly, a major technical feat. But beyond that, it’s a living time capsule: a love letter to New York City. And it’s one that, one day, will reveal three decades of transformation in a single, breathtaking sequence.
When 42 Days Vanished
For the best part of a decade, Joseph’s time-lapse system had run flawlessly: it captured New York’s story frame by frame without missing a moment.
However, the unthinkable then happened. One of Joseph’s SD cards, connected to his GoPro, suddenly failed. The failure resulted in the loss of over 120,000 images. It wiped out 42 days’ worth of time-lapse footage from the NYC TimeScape archive.
In an instant, priceless photos of the city’s life had vanished—fog rolling over the Hudson, the ever-changing construction sites, the shifting sunlight on the skyline. The loss wasn’t just data. For a project built around continuity, it was a period of time that couldn’t be re-shot, short of a time machine.
For Joseph, who had spent years refining his automation system, the realization was devastating. “It’s like losing a piece of history,” he said; a painful reminder that even the most meticulously planned systems are still vulnerable.
Turning to Secure Data Recovery
Faced with the loss of irreplaceable footage, Joseph began researching professional data recovery options, and quickly came across Secure Data Recovery.
What stood out most to him was our reputation for handling high-stakes recoveries with precision and speed. For a project as unique and data-intensive as NYC TimeScape, every minute counted; Joseph needed to know whether or not his photographs could be retrieved.
Joseph reached out to us, and our specialists immediately began guiding him through the recovery process. From the first consultation, we reassured him that there was still hope. He then dropped by our Manhattan location, left us his corrupted SD card, and we got to work.
Our engineers carried out a cleanroom recovery—a controlled environment where precision tools are used to safely image, rebuild, and extract data from damaged storage devices.
Using proprietary recovery techniques, our team successfully retrieved the vast majority of the 3,000 images that Joseph had lost access to.
We found that around 60 of these images had suffered severe corruption, and unfortunately, couldn’t be fully salvaged; they had some visual artifacts that we couldn’t get rid of. Joseph requested these images, and we obliged. For him, these corrupted images told their own story.
The remaining images were all fully salvageable, however—and we did just that. We retrieved them with ease, fully intact. And of course, our account manager, Eric, kept Joseph in the loop every step of the way.
The whole process, from Joseph’s first call to us recovering his photos, was just a few short days. We helped Joseph get the NYC TimeScape project back on track, seamlessly restoring around 98% of its lost timeline.
As Joseph put it, “I couldn't be happier with Secure Data Recovery for their professionalism, communication, speed, and follow through.”
For him, the experience was more than just a technical success. It was a sigh of relief and renewed confidence in a project that could define his creative legacy.
Preserving the Future of NYC TimeScape
What we were able to recover for Joseph at Secure Data Recovery wasn’t just data; it was a piece of New York’s living history.
Those 42 days of lost data represented moments of light, weather, and an ever-changing city that couldn’t be replicated.
Recovering them meant that Joseph’s vision for a 30-year visual record could continue: a project that will, one day, stand as one of the most comprehensive photographic chronicles of the city’s evolution.
For Secure Data Recovery, this is what our work is all about: protecting creativity, history, and the data that keeps it all going.
The Secure Data Recovery Way
Joseph’s experience with us isn’t unique: we strive to provide the same high standard of service to every single one of our clients, and treat every case with the utmost care.
We offer 24/7 emergency services, certified cleanrooms, and we’ve maintained a 96% success rate over nearly two decades in the business. We also place the highest emphasis on your privacy and adhere to some of the most stringent standards across the industry.
Above all, we always stand by our No Data, No Recovery Fee guarantee: a policy Joseph appreciated, as do most of our clients. On the off chance we’re unable to recover your data, we won’t charge you a thing.
Have you lost access to your footage, project files, or archives? Call us at 800-388-1266 or start your case online today. We’ll help you get your files back—safely and quickly.
