People in Public
about
Three men are asleep on a bench opposite me on the 7 train. All appear to be in their forties or fifties…
On an uptown C train a man sits down next to me and immediately pulls out a drawing pad…
I’m waiting for an uptown 6 train at 86th Street. On the downtown side opposite me…
I’m crossing the street in a busy section of downtown Pasadena…
I’m leaving my apartment for work on a rainy day…
On the downtown F train I’m sitting across from a woman dressed in a colorful, complicated ensemble…
I’m browsing the discount racks outside the Strand when my attention is drawn to a…
I’m leaving the station at 77th Street on the 6 line when I notice a flurry of activity…
I’m waiting for a truck to arrive at the loading dock of my studio building…
On a downtown F train I notice three people simultaneously eating bananas…
As I’m approaching the elevated subway near my home I hear a series of explosive pounding noises…
At the market near my studio a man has positioned himself next to the entrance…
Urban infrastructure as improvised exercise equipment: the scaffold cross-member becomes…
As I’m approaching the northeastern corner of McCarren Park in Williamsburg I’m confronted…
In the long tunnel connecting the 7 train platform to the Bryant Park subway station…
A woman is standing at the corner of 23rd Street and 6th Avenue screaming into her phone…
In the parking lot behind my building a lone figure is shadow boxing…
In Tribeca Park, on the corner of Walker Street and Church. It’s a windy day…
The discount produce market on the corner below the subway. When I’m waiting for the train…
I’ve stopped mid-block on the Upper East Side to write an email on my phone…
Exiting a crowded train at my stop in Queens I fall in behind a young woman. She’s dressed…
In the triangular plaza next to my studio building in Dumbo a man is standing on top of a…
I’m walking through the long pedestrian tunnel that connects the Times Square subway station…
Walking around in the Toy District in Los Angeles, which lies on the border of Skid Row…
I’m riding in a mostly-empty L train in the direction of Rockaway Parkway. When the doors open…
It’s nighttime, and M. and I are walking back along the road that bisects Calvary Cemetery…
Early evening in Dumbo, and I’m walking up Plymouth Street in the direction of Vinegar Hill…
On a 1 train uptown a young woman enters the train carrying a microwave oven…
An August evening on the East River waterfront in the 30s: a row of yachts (so-called ‘party boats’)…
Arriving on the outskirts of Athens by car I’ve pulled over to the side of the national road. The plan was…
I’m in Athens sitting with R., having lunch at ‘I Kriti,’ a restaurant owned by a friend…
M. and I are walking through the East Village on a warm spring evening. As we’re passing…
At the Jay St. Metro Tech station I’ve transferred from a C train to an F…
Outside a warehouse in Nashville, TN where I’m finishing a couple of pieces I’ve made for the…
I’m standing in the York Street station waiting for a train. Some distance away from me…
It’s a hot day and M. and I are walking up the Westside Piers looking for somewhere…
A young woman sitting across from me on a nearly-empty F train catches my attention…
Two (or more) people walking together, wearing the same T-shirt: a sudden…
Masks on public transport. Since the early stages of the pandemic there has been…
M. and I walk through Soho several weeks after the protests in the wake of the George Floyd death…
On the F train to Brooklyn my attention is drawn to a middle-aged man sitting across…
UPS stores. During the pandemic lockdown people have become dependent on shipping and logistics…
On our return from a trip to the pharmacy on Flatbush Avenue M. and I are walking side-by-side…
Social distancing: the buzzword of the new pandemic society – a directive to maintain…
I sit down on a half-empty Q train car next to an older man who’s busy shouting into his phone…
On a crowded 6 train I become aware of a tense exchange of words…
Standing on the downtown 6 train platform at Union Square I happen to glance…
I’ve just crossed Rue de Rivoli in Paris and am walking past Hotel de Ville…
I arrive at a photo-express shop in the Les Halles neighborhood in Paris, where I’m…
In the Jay Street metro station a loud conversation is taking place next to the stairwell…
In a large pharmacy near Union Square I head upstairs to pick up my ‘sleep aid.’
I stop in at the Laundromat, place my clothes in a machine, then run next door…
At a drugstore store near Union Square I’m searching the aisles for hand lotion…
I walk along 14th Street after a talk at the New School. A rally against the policies…
I’m waiting for a bus on 5th Avenue after having left an opening a few blocks north…
After leaving a lecture by an architect on the 12th floor of a building downtown, I’m standing…
As the train I’m on pulls into the station I see a disheveled man surrounded by tattered…
In line at the grocery I wait for a trio of preteens (two girls and one boy)…
After a film screening at MoMA I’m walking back toward the F train on 6th Avenue…
A tattooed woman is sitting in a seat across from me on the C train. She’s middle aged…
In the subway a middle-aged woman, dressed in a clashing outfit of bold-print…
Walking down east Canal Street I hear a commotion on the other side of the street…
A study in contrasts. On the shuttle train, two characters I often see enter the otherwise nearly-empty…
I’ve just exited the 14th Street subway station at 6th Avenue when I’m confronted…
It’s nighttime in Dumbo and a film shoot is underway beneath the Manhattan Bridge…
Sitting in the north end of Brooklyn Bridge Park I witness the same tourist ritual…
I’m walking on the pedestrian bridge that connects to the C train at Fulton Street…
A gay couple is walking down the street in front of me. They are in the process of…
A woman singing out loud on a street corner attracts my attention…
I’m sitting next to a middle aged Caucasian man on the subway. He’s dressed…
Three French women sit across from me on the subway. They’re in their mid-twenties…
Every so often I pass by the Federal Court building at Cadman Plaza right after…
I’ve left MoMA after a film screening and am walking down 6th Avenue toward…
An arrest is in progress at the Jay St. subway station when I exit the F train to transfer…
I’m walking along a street in Dumbo and a woman approaches me from the opposite direction…
Before a film screening at BAM I notice some commotion in a row beneath me…
Two young women sit down opposite me on the subway: they are a study in opposites…
I’m riding the Q train in Brooklyn. It’s a crowded train, and I’m standing close to a…
At the voting precinct I witness a tense interaction. In the booth next to me an older woman…
I get on the B train at 14th Street and sit down across from a young man and woman…
In the dining area at the Union Square Whole Foods. I’m sitting near the window…
I’ve put a load of clothes in the dryer at the Chinese laundry across the street…
At a Quaker Meeting Hall in Falmouth, MA, I attend the service, which is an hour of…
The much-heralded solar eclipse has finally arrived; New York will only witness…
Out of the corner of my eye riding on the F train I observe an interaction between a frail…
Ankles and feet. Taking the subway one often falls in behind others taking the stairs…
Headed west on the 7 train in Queens I find myself sitting next to two families of tourists…
On the shuttle train to Prospect Park the train car is sparsely populated…
Walking through Dumbo on my way to the train I see a tourist couple approaching…
On my way home to my apartment I come across a confusing scene on Flatbush Avenue…
I’m walking with two friends on a narrow sidewalk, en route to a barbecue at an apartment…
Two African men on the shuttle train from Prospect Park. They’re in their forties, dressed nearly identically…
Getting gas in the town of C. en route to returning a rental car. I pull up to the service station…
Riding on the Red Line on the LA metro a young man and woman sit down on either side of me…
The corner of Washington and Water Streets in Dumbo: a location that has become one of the most…
Something strikes me about a young woman standing next to me on the C train. At first…
Approaching an intersection I see a man waving; catty-corner outside the subway…
On my way down the narrow escalator in the High Street subway station I get stuck…
At a new Whole Foods store on the Upper East Side. The store has a confusing layout…
The pitiless perspective of an overhead surveillance camera: I’m waiting in line at a deli…
A man shuffles cards across from me on the shuttle train. It’s an unusual activity…
At an upscale supermarket I’m waiting to grab a pastry as two women are restocking the shelves…
In a used bookstore I’ve made my selection – Mallarmé’s Poesies, and approach the counter…
Sitting next to a young man in the subway. He’s busy on his phone, and, bored, I steal a glance…
On the Airtrain from JFK I overhear a conversation between two coworkers who have just…
Riding the R train, a disheveled man boards at Atlantic Avenue. He’s pushing a filled-to-the-brim…
The new ritual of asking a stranger a question: the question is posed the first time…
I’m sitting on a bench in Madison Square Park, reading a book, when a man approaches me…
Leaving the train station at Prospect Park late on a Saturday night I hear a commotion…
At the 34th Street station, waiting for a train on the downtown platform…
I’ve read about a gallery opening in Brussels, and having an hour or so to kill before a film…
At a plaza near the Palais Royale in Brussels. After a long walk I grab a sandwich and a drink…
After a long night of train travel from Berlin to Cologne, followed by botched hotel reservations…
I’m traveling on the S-Bahn in Berlin running an errand, and when I get out…
On a train to JFK a woman sitting across from me is reading the supermarket advertisements…
A friend invites me to a reading at the New School, and I arrive only a few minutes before…
I step onto a 2 train and take a seat directly across from a young woman sitting by herself…
After a gallery opening myself, two close friends and another couple (he an architect in his late-forties…
At the all-night deli I’m behind a young man in line. He’s speaking on the phone…
In my studio in Dumbo a commotion on the street draws me to the window…
Passing by a construction site on bicycle during my morning commute I see a row…
A woman gets onto a Q train and takes a seat across from me. She’s in her late fifties…
Passing by Canal Street in the late evening. A young woman is walking in the other direction…
At the Chicago International Airport. I’m sitting near my gate waiting for a connecting…
At a restaurant in Oregon with my mother. The hostess, a distinguished-looking woman…
Riding my bike up Union Street in Park Slope on a late summer evening…
The outdoor photo shoot. A rough, industrial urban locale offers the perfect backdrop…
At the 99 cent store. As I approach the counter to make my purchase…
Saturday in Brooklyn. Neighborhoods are transformed from their normal…
Running late to return a rental car in Athens, myself and my three companions…
Sitting with friends in an outdoor café near our hotel in Athens…
A chivalrous battle of languages: when speaking with someone whose mother tongue…
K. makes a statement, an overly-obvious stab at humor or irony, and I know before the last word’s left…
As I’m passing through the new section of park adjacent to my studio I notice…
In line at the grocery store I hear the faint sounds of a duet…
Out of my studio window I happen to notice two women and a man engaged in an argument…
Permanent employees in transient spaces: the workers who take tickets, sell drinks, clear trays…
I’m reading on a bench in Sunset Park on a blustery spring day…
A chain store that sells recreational equipment presents a particularly modern quandary…
The ludicrous, humiliating experience of passing through the security…
In downtown Portland, Oregon, I’ve parked alongside the public library…
After a visit to the Studio Museum in Harlem I wander out through a set of doors…
On a crowded train at rush hour a group of teenage boys makes a boisterous entrance…
Waiting for a train in a Brooklyn station I sit down on a bench…
At a film screening at MoMA: after I’ve taken my seat a young couple…
I’ve gone to retrieve my bike after a lecture at the German House…
Standing amongst a small group of people waiting for the elevator at the Clark Street subway station…
Attending a movie alone: why is movie viewing considered somehow off-limits…
After a dinner with friends in Bushwick I agree, somewhat reluctantly, to accompany…
I watch a man strolling through Prospect Park having a conversation on FaceTime…
On the flight from Berlin to New York a strange disturbance is taking place at the rear of the plane…
At a supermarket in Cologne, a slightly humiliating moment at the cashier…
At a screening of ‘In Jackson Heights,’ the Wiseman documentary…
At the Met: the cellphone brandished as a weapon, a screen, an interpreter-par-excellence…
On the 6 train uptown. The train has been waiting in the station, and after I sit down…
Riding over the Manhattan Bridge late one night. A group of four cyclists…
Bryant Square Park has been transformed into a corporate ice skating arena…
At the Salt Lake City airport where I’m waiting for my connection, a woman paces…
Standing near the corner of 63rd and Madison waiting for movers to arrive…
I’m about to enter the train station at Union Square when I see an elderly woman approaching…
At the 125th Street station I’m waiting to transfer to a 6 train when I notice a strange figure…
At an opening at PS1 I’m sitting on the stairs a short distance from a young couple…
As I step onto the C train and take a seat on the bench has gotten up and is crossing the aisle in front of me. At first glance…
The event space next to my studio: every few nights it’s awash in well-dressed partygoers…
On my way back from an errand in the South Bronx I’m met with a sudden cloud of white smoke…
At the corner of 14th Street and University, a frail-looking, Black woman is crossing the intersection…
I’m purchasing a camera, and the clerk wants to look me up on the company’s computer…
Entering my building I’m confronted with a young woman absorbed in her smartphone…
I’m working on my computer in the small, shaded seating area…
A woman at an art opening mistakes me for someone she knows…
I’m traveling on my bicycle approaching another cyclist some yards ahead of me…
I am constantly amazed at the facility with which strangers make convincing small talk…
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