Street Level

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Imagine a time before trendy boutiques lined the streets of the lower east side, before time square was a tourist attraction. A time when subway trains were covered in graffiti, when the streets were filled with danger, a time when the meatpacking district actually packaged meat. This is the gritty, decaying, and crime-infested New York City of twenty years ago. It was not glamorous, but that it is not to say it was not beautiful. Sue Kwon is a New York native whose collection of black and white photographs titled “Street Level” captures the raw beauty of the New York City so many of us want to forget. Her collection consists of 20 years of documentary and commercial photography. From little Italy to Coney Island; from little girls to celebrities such as Biggie Smalls; and everything and everyone in between, Sue Kwon depicts people from all realms and occasions. She shows scenes that we have all seen but have never taken the time to recognize their beauty. She does this by catching these beautiful fleeting moments of everyday street life and displaying them on 8 x11 black and whites. The title “Street Level” is a perfect way to describe her work, for her pictures are taken up close, as if the viewer had walked by the person on the street and in that split second caught a glimpse into their soul. Sue Kwon has an uncanny ability to capture her subject in a way that is as direct and candid as the photograph itself.