Video: The Library of the New York Subway: An Original Project about American Reading
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
American photographer Ourit Ben-Haim takes daily photographs of passengers reading on the New York subway. Fortunately, the inhabitants of the Big Apple more and more often give an excuse: they read a lot in the metro, selflessly and … by no means fiction.
Several years ago, Ben-Haim began filming passengers reading on a regular mobile phone, and posting the photos on a social network. However, the characters sometimes came across so bright, and the literary tastes of Urit's fellow travelers were so different that the photographer decided to take the issue seriously. This is how the project "The Underground New York Public Library" was born, and a little later the website of the same name began its work.
Street photography is a complex art form with a distinct visual language. Legally, what Ben-Haim is doing is quite acceptable, the ethical side of the issue remains open, because it is believed that Americans are ambivalent about any invasion of privacy, even in the name of art.
Ben-Haim says that sometimes she manages to take a picture unnoticed, but more often the characters in her future photographs still notice that they are being filmed. However, the photographer believes that it makes little difference: “I try to capture the moment. The result of my work does not depend as much on my actions as it might seem. Often the moment takes the initiative."
It is curious that the photographer is trying to capture not only the image of the reading passenger - she is also interested in what exactly her characters are reading. If the cover of the book is not visible, Urit asks his fellow traveler what kind of work he is passionate about. It turns out that Americans love Russian classics - Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, of course, Daniil Kharms, Mikhail Bulgakov, there are fans of Kurt Vonnegut, admirers of Henry Miller, connoisseurs of Jonathan Foer and Chuck Palahniuk … However, revealing the literary side of socio-economic reality is not the goal of the project Ben Haim. “I'm not an anthropologist,” says Urit, “I'm just interested in creating a project about us. And by the way, this is not an attempt to capture the endangered species of reading Americans."
The New York Subway often inspires artists and photographers for interesting projects. For example, Japanese author Terada Mokei created a 1 / 100th scale paper version of one of the New York subway stations.
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