New York City Subway Ride: Intimacy and the iPhone
This project is an exploration of the role of mobile phone camera technology in street photography. The images were taken with my Apple iPhone 5s or 7 between 2016 and 2019 on the above-ground NYC subway lines in Brooklyn. The project consists of a series of diptychs followed by a selection of unedited images from my iPhone. The diptychs are comprised of portraits paired with images of the surroundings near to where the portraits were taken. These images - taken through the subway windows, on the platforms or just below the tracks - are intended to give the viewers the feeling that they, too, are on the journey. Themes of motion and stillness, life and death, and reinvention are woven throughout.
Over the years, photographers have used different methods to clandestinely capture these quiet subway moments. For example, in the late 1930s/early 1940s, Walker Evans used a camera hidden under his coat to photograph subway riders. In the 1990s, Thomas Roma used a Rolleiflex-like camera with a waist-level viewfinder. Today, the omnipresent and ever-improving mobile technology provides most subway riders the opportunity to photograph fellow passengers, if they wish. While the image detail and amount of control offered by a traditional handheld camera is not possible with the iPhone, the anonymity of mobile cameras is unmatched. When taking these photos, I sat as close as a foot or two away from the subjects and, with my phone against my chest or the side of my arm or leg, took multiple images - sometimes over one hundred of a subject over the course of up to 30 minutes. Given the discrete nature of the iPhone, I was able to move around the subject or shift the phone to take the images from different angles. I never had a single interaction with any of the individuals in these images, and do not believe any of them knew I was photographing them. In affording photographers the ability to observe a subject for long periods of time and take multiple images, mobile phone cameras allow us to become acquainted with our subjects in a new way. They also provide the opportunity to string together authentic images to make sequences and perhaps start to tell more of a story.
