The subway was relevant in 1979, it was full of graffiti, it didn't run well, it was unsafe
and I felt compelled to go underground.
I found the subway very essential, even sexual.
I found the color in the subway gave meaning and that the subway could be anything, I could
photograph a beast or I could photograph a beauty.
And so there was a challenge going into the subway because it was a little bit of a nervous
energy and apprehension because at that time the subway was unsafe.
But if you're walking around with an expensive camera.
New York Magazine asked me whether I would like to go with a group of subway undercover
police policemen who dress and act in such a way to precipitate a robbery.
This perpetrator came over to take my camera but the backup police are in the car with,
they look more like a thief than a thief, Billy I think his name, he immediately arrested
the guy that was mugging me.
So it's really not what it looks like, but it's what it feels like.
I'm in a crowded train, there was a man that interested in me because he wore a bowler
like you'd find in England 50 years ago and I take his picture with my flash.
And then I say excuse myself, I'm sorry, I had to do that, it was just a beautiful moment.
He said I didn't see it, I'm blind.
I work at the lighthouse for the blind.
I thought that was amazing how you can misrepresent and misunderstand what you're looking at.
It was always about color and how color expressed itself in the meaning of the subway at that
time.
I'm basically a black and white photographer but that can change depending on what I'm
doing.
In the subway it just called me to experience this in color.
I'm using Kodachrome 64, it's a slow speed film but I chose it for its fidelity and its
strength and its beautiful palette.
I use filters, no filters, flash, no flash.
There was a variety of technical ways I photographed at that time.
Subway is an aesthetic experience.
I'm not there to prove anything but to show the multiplicity and layers of life in the
New York subway at that time.
It was a beautiful experience, it was like I was on a voyage of discovery.
I didn't need to go to the Serengeti Plain, I could photograph the animals right there
in front of me and they were beautiful.
