UPTOWN BOUND 2000 - 2006
I began studying photography at Hunter College in 1993. From the beginning I was attracted to the lights and shadows created by subway architecture, especially the way the roofs of cars and the tracks are bathed in light from the street level above. I always marveled at the natural lighting effects so produced; they reminded me of medieval religious paintings I had seen in European churches.
In April 2000, I visited the West 86th Street station with a rented Hasselblad. That was a sunny Sunday morning and I felt the lighting through the street level looked wonderful. I set up my tripod in the platform and started pressing the cable release. I continued to do so for about thirty minutes until a policeman interrupted me. I was disappointed, but the result of that half hour's work came out quite beautiful, for which I felt blessed. The images I captured that morning were exhibited in a group show, which opened at the gallery in downtown on Thursday, September 6th 2001. Then the fifth day into the exhibition, on Tuesday September 11th in the late morning when I woke up, the twin towers of WTC had already disappeared from the Manhattan skyline. The world I lived in and loved for past fourteen years had suddenly disappeared. The gallery was located just a few blocks away from the WTC. The show had to be temporarily closed due to circumstances shutting off everything in Manhattan south of 14th street. Now those works have become a symbol for me of the innocence of New York City before 911 which I have loved so dearly since I moved here two decades ago.
