What do you see on every other corner in New York City? A bank? A Deli? No, no, no—none of those, the answer is Starbucks. Every morning, you turn to your local Starbucks for a morning drink; everyday after school, your friends may ask you, “Let’s go to Starbucks”; every once in a while, you crave for the newest flavor on the Starbucks menu. The fact is—if you haven’t had a Starbuck drink yet in your life, you are not a New Yorker. That is why, when my friend asked me last Friday if I want to grab a drink at the Starbucks nearby, I immediately related this instance with the street photography project. What can be more reputable for daily life in New York City than Starbucks?
Starting as a little café in Seattle, Washington, it has become one of the major coffee chain stores around the United States and the world. Literarily, there is a Starbucks every two or three blocks. No matter how much money you have in your bank account, it is just always a good idea to have a cup of Starbucks on your hand, particularly in Manhattan—you know, coffee looks like a “high-class” thing, not to say Starbucks coffee (Though it IS very expensive, but who cares! Everybody drinks it). It has become a sign of social status.
For me, Starbucks is an excellent place for chilling and doing work. It is comfortable and relaxing, which is the environment they intended for their costumers. Having been to several different Starbucks in a variety of places in New York, I have always wondered what people are actually looking at when they are relaxing. So, for my project, I want to show the different sights people see when sitting in a Starbucks through my photos, and also the reasons for people to go there. I try to use a number of angles when shooting, just so I can get the best possible view people see in their seats. I am thinking from the viewer’s perspectives. What are they thinking when they see the view? What do they want to feel when looking out the window? What kind of atmosphere are they looking for when they have a cup of espresso and a book on hands? There are the guiding questions for my journey, which actually help me in numerous ways, including the time when I am deciding my sites.
It was kind of difficult to decide which Starbuck I should go to for the pictures. I wanted to capture the distinctive culture around New York City, but there are way too many locations to choose from. As a result, I made a list of all the views I want to go, and then subtracted them to a number of twelve. To make it to all the places I wanted, I had to spend a whole day taking the subway up and down—even so some of the photos I had to wait until Monday for completion—I was glad that I waited until then.
On Monday, I have two more pictures to take, one from inside Baruch and one from nearby. I took the photo as soon as I arrived at school. It was a nice timing since everyone was lying on the sofas and being lazy. It was perfect for my theme, although I didn’t know that at the time (just a heads up, I didn’t know what exactly I was doing until I put all my pieces together). However, the next photo took me a while. Since it was the first day of the week, I had to run for many of my classes. Before I knew it, the sun was setting. That was a really bad sign because I wanted to keep all of the lightning in my photos spontaneous, which I could no longer do.
I was thinking to myself, “Oh well… At least I tried. I’ll just do this and then go home.”
But then, when I got there, there it is—a masterpiece right in front of me. The sun had just got down, and the light was dim, but I knew it at the first sight that it matches side by side with my message. That’s when I suddenly became clear what my theme is: Peace through your Starbucks window.
It’s interesting you chose this topic, because I was actually about to do a similar theme. I really like the narrative of how you got to choosing your title. I can relate to that because Starbucks, as it seems, is a place where many people sit to relax and enjoy their cup of coffee – a coffee break! Their traditional storefront is a huge glass window allowing people inside to see outside, and outside to peep inside. During the winter especially, the store is so cozy, one would really not want to leave. There definitely is a vibe of peace and tranquility in there.