Someone Is Always Watching on the NYC Train
When I moved to NYC in 2002, I wanted to document the thousands of diverse faces and people I see in transit every day, but it’s not easy to find an unthreatening way to take photos. It’s difficult to be unobtrusive when I have an enormous camera hanging around my neck.
Then came the iPhone. My favorite photo apps are LoFi, Camera Bag, Photogene, MillColour, MosaicCam, Polarize, SepiaCamera, and Instagram. Rarely Hipstamatic. But my big secret is the SpyPic app which puts a false page on the screen so it isn’t obvious I am using the iPhone’s camera.
Every day I feel like I am in a car full of compatriots and companions, and it is a silent, poetic-feeling conversation I have with my subjects.
I dedicate my blog, Subways, to my late brother Mike who was a huge advocate for bicycles. As teenagers, we made a pact never to become suburbanite commuters; one person per car and adding to traffic, pollution, general waste and excess. He was 20 years old when he was killed on his bicycle by a drunk driver. This is also my way of sharing his memory.