Discover Top Posts Tagged with #steve-siegel

Book for purchase: "New York in the Eighties: A Photographic History" www.blurb.com/b/6144990-new-york-in-the-80s-a-photographi... I’ve been photographing the streets and subways of New York for the past 30 years. When young people today look at my shots from the 1980’s, they are aghast. To them, New York of the 1980’s is almost unrecognizable. And they are right. Some older people are nostalgic for “the good old days.” For example, they remember the Times Square of the 80’s… And what they remember is not so much the danger but the grittiness and (for lack of a better word) the authenticity. Yes, there was sleaze, but there were also video arcades, cheap movies, restaurants, and weird places. These same people resent the “Disney-ification” of Times Square and the gentrification of virtually all of Manhattan and many areas of the boroughs, and the loss of cheap housing and local stores everywhere. Others’ reactions to these same photos could not be more different. If they’re over a certain age, they remember the high crime, the twin crises of AIDS and crack, the racial tension, the lurid tabloid headlines about the latest street crime. They say: It was a nightmare, and thank God it’s over. Of course, both views are right. *** This set contains a sampling of my 1980s-era photos of the World Trade Center.

#steve-siegel #New York City #people #city #street

#steve-siegel #street #portrait #New York City #homeless #people #children

The "Subway Dream" series was shot around 1988 through 1990 in a junkyard in Jersey City just south of Liberty State Park and the Statute of Liberty. At the time the junkyard was scrapping old subway cars under contract to the MTA. Surprisingly, the junkyard was not fenced off and there was no security whatsoever. My friends and I stumbled onto the place and returned repeatedly. Since the junkyard was in the shadow of the Manhattan skyline and the Statute of Liberty, the place resembled the set of a post-apocalyptic movie! The subway cars were piled up haphazardly. Some subway cars were laying on their sides. This, of course, enabled us to do "which way is up" type shots inside the subway car... with people seemingly walking on subway car walls. Since this was late 1980s, the junkyard subway cars were the last generation of subway cars with full-scale graffiti. (The MTA subway fleet was virtually graffiti-free by about 1987). So this represented one last opportunity to photograph some of the classic graffiti large-scale "canvases" before they were gone forever. For all of these reasons this was truly a photographer's paradise -- especially for someone such as myself who loves photographing both "gritty urban realism" and the profoundly weird "art" photograph. The subway car junkyard offered remarkable opportunities to photograph one or the other genre... or both in the same frame. When I found this location I knew at once this was going to be probably one of the greatest photographic locations I would ever encounter in my life. And the passage of years has proven this to be true. If this subway car scrapyard existed today, it would be overrun with photographers. Today "ruins photography" has become a popular hobby for the masses. But back when I began doing it in the 1980s, there were very few other photographers and adventurers visiting these "off-the-beaten-track" locations. For example, I don't recall encountering a single other photographer at the Jersey City subway cart junkyard in the many times that I visited. Incidentally, the Jersey City junkyard is still there today. But... before you run over there with your camera... the MTA no longer sends old subway cars to this junkyard ... or to any other junkyard. Instead, the MTA ships subway cars out by barge for a "burial at sea." The cars are dumped a few miles out offshore and are intended to serve as undersea reefs for fish. And so... perhaps some intrepid underwater photographer can locate the subway car reef .... and (carrying on the spirit of subway-car surrealism) photograph a shark living on the A train!

#steve-siegel #New York City #people #graffiti #subway