Photographer Ward Roberts became fascinated by the clean pastel lines of the new housing built at Far Rockaway beach in New York. The landscape is fascinating, yet incredibly strange – a desert in the middle of the city.

At first, the images seem innocent: a lonely figure on a vast expanse of beach, nondescript suburbia in the distance, infinite blue skies. A picture-perfect moment in beautiful sun-washed colors.

Questions begin to drift to the surface, though – what felt strangely familiar now becomes slightly unsettling.

These images are no stolen moments. They have been slowly and carefully arranged. There is more colour in that single parasol than there is in the entire expanse of buildings behind.

The series can be divided into two stories. In one, we have a happy ending: white sand, picket fences, pretty wooden houses, clear skies. In the other, things turn out differently: council estates looming in the distance, blocks of social housing. Is this a hopeful beginning or the start of a dark ending? Only time can tell.