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Zohran Mamdani’s campaign was polling at 8 percent when photojournalist Jack Califano first reached out in March. Mamdani’s run was barely a blip then, but Califano sensed the swell of something shifting. He asked Mamdani’s communications director if he could follow the campaign behind the scenes (and on his own dime) for a long-term documentary project. They said yes, and over the next nine months, Califano embedded himself within Zohran’s team, photographing everything from union rallies to neighborhood canvassers to Ramadan iftars among aunties. He burned through more than 100 rolls of film in the process.

Jack and I first crossed paths on Chaand Raat—the pos

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