Coping Above and Below

At first I thought it would be a simple task. How hard could photography be? Little did I know that photography was actually harder than I thought. My biggest problem was that I had difficulty choosing a theme. I have always taken pictures of auspicious occasions, family and friends, landscapes and pretty objects. Therefore, doing this project was actually new to me because I would have to go looking for pictures to match up to my theme. After compiling about 200 pictures that I took and leafing through each one, I realized that most of my pictures related to one theme: people struggling to cope with everyday life for everyday living. With the amount of pictures I took in the subway and in the streets, I came up with the title I have because of the correlation between people trying to make a living on the streets and those doing the same underground but in a different way.

At the beginning, I decided to spend a day walking around New York City looking for random photographs, and hopefully, inspiration. I started in my Bensonhurst neighborhood and came upon graffiti on the wall of a run-down building situated next to the train station. I took a photograph of this, which I used on the first slide of my PowerPoint presentation as an introduction. It is a drawing of a bowl of alphabet soup in which the words “art is significance, not appearance” surfaced signed by MM. I remembered that last year as I was walking past the same place, I saw another drawing on the floor signed by Marcus Motion. I admire the art he draws but wonder what made him think this way. I believe that art is both significance and appearance. Not only is art based on the impression it leaves on its viewers, but it also is significance in that there is always a reason or story behind every piece of artwork. That is why I used this photograph to start off my project.

For my next location, I traveled via the MTA transit system to 34^th street and did not have to pay for transportation thanks to the handy unlimited Metrocard. As I was walking between doors, transferring between trains, and dodging people everywhere, I heard music echoing throughout the station as the trains left. My ears led me to a man playing three different wooden instruments that I cannot name due to my poor knowledge of musical instruments. However, all I knew was that it sounded peaceful and smooth amidst the bustling rush of everything that was happening in the 34^th street subway stop. Besides providing soothing music, he was also trying very hard to earn money at the same time. I took a photograph of this man and used it in my project. This photograph is titled “Three at Once.”

My next destination was Chinatown where I took many of my photos. My favorite photograph from Chinatown is the one titled “Making a Living.” Every time I get out of the train station, I take the same route along Canal Street to get to places, and each time I do, I always see an elderly man selling hair accessories on the corner of a street, rain or shine. I felt bad for the man, who has to suffer even at an old age and try to make some money from his items. Sometimes, I buy items from his because I feel bad.

Another one of my favorite photographs is the one titled “NYU Tuition Fund” which I took on 8^th Street. The man was begging for money, not for hunger or shelter, but for tuition for NYU. Surprisingly, many people approached him while I was watching. In the photograph, a woman was talking to him about her major and two other women approached him to offer him soup. I especially like the lighting that makes the eyes focus more attention on the two people in the photo as opposed to the dark background.

I enjoyed walking around and clicking my camera away because I was able to catch some interesting photos. However, I admit I did have some problems with photography. After I chose a subject for my photos, I was afraid to take them head-on because it would seem as if I was invading their privacy. Furthermore if the subject of my photos was a crowd as compared to a single person, I would not ask because to me, single subjects seemed more intimidating. Therefore, for most of my photographs, I asked the subjects if I could photograph them. All of them gave me their consent and only then would I feel unburdened. I had difficulty approaching them at times, but after many trials, I became accustomed to it.  I also realized that having a camera at hand all the time is actually very convenient because I can capture those special moments in time that will never happen again as time passes. To me, photography is capturing a paused moment in life and in this project, I felt like a real photographer.