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- Subway Photography -

Life Below: The New York City Subway by Christophe Agou Quantuck Lane Press, 2004. 112pp. book dimensions: 9.6 x 7.3, 75 duotone images. "Shot between 1997 and 2000, French photojournalist Agou's subway portraits stick to the gritty b&w protocol set by generations before him and deliver satisfying set pieces. An exhausted Latino worker sprawled out on the steps in the heat, waiting interminably for the train; a sensitive looking Clark Kent type in madras shorts staring blankly out the window of a passing train; an emaciated nun dozing but alert; trash blowing above grates; the bulging stomach of a mid-level employee in outdated shirt and tie; a tangle of wires leading to an antiquated P.A. speaker—it's all here, including what looks like a pool of blood on a concrete concourse. The printing of these 64 duotones is sharp, with a maximum of one photo per page and some spreads. As the publicity note states, New York City is considering banning "unauthorized" photography in the subway, so Agou's subject and style, which are commonplace now, may become rarer." --Publishers Weekly Many Are Called by Walker Evans, James Agee, Luc Sante, Jeff L. Rosenheim Yale University Press, 2004. 207pp. book dimensions: 9.6 x 8.0 inches "Many Are Called came to fruition at a slow pace. In 1938, Walker Evans began surreptitiously photographing people on the New York City subway. With his camera hidden in his coat—the lens peeking through a buttonhole—he captured the faces of riders hurtling through the dark tunnels, wrapped in their own private thoughts. By 1940-41, Evans had made over six hundred photographs and had begun to edit the series. The book remained unpublished until 1966 when The Museum of Modern Art mounted an exhibition of Evans’s subway portraits. This beautiful new edition—published in the centenary year of the NYC subway—is an essential book for all admirers of Evans’s unparalleled photographs, Agee’s elegant prose, and the great City of New York." --book description

The Subway Pictures
by Peter Peter
Random House, 2004. 160pp.
book dimensions: 9.1 x 9.5 inches, color.

"It's not the trains that are featured here, but the people on them. The Czech-born Peter's portraits follow in the tradition of Walker Evans's b&w shots ... Peter put his camera in a bag that he kept by his side, also capturing whoever was sitting across the aisle without their knowledge. ... Despite being candids, his full-color shots of one or two figures in mostly empty cars are somehow taken with the tacit "I don't care what you do" knowledge of his mostly working-class subjects from New York's panopoly of cultures—most of whom are exhaustedly internally focused, sleeping, reading, kissing or familialy slumping over one another. ..." --Publishers Weekly

Subway
by Bruce Davidson
St Ann's Press, 2004. 132pp.
book dimensions: 10.0 x 12.2 inches, 102 color photos.

"Originally published in 1986, this dark, democratic environment provided the setting for photographer Bruce Davidson’s first extensive series in color. Subway riders are set against a gritty, graffiti-strewn background, displayed in tones Davidson described as "an iridescence like that I had seen in photographs of deep-sea fish." Never before has the subway been portrayed in such detail, revealing the interplay of its inner landscape and out vistas. The images include lovers, commuters, tourists, families, and the homeless. From weary straphangers to languorous ladies in summer dresses to stalking predators, Davidson’s compassionate vision illuminates the stubborn survival of humanity..." --book description

Subway Memories
by Camilo Jose Vergara
Monacelli Press, 2004. 128pp.
book dimensions: 7.1 x 9.0 inches

"New York City's first subway system officially opened on October 27, 1904, operating along a nine-mile strip. Today, in it's centennial year, the subway stretches for 685 miles and carries well over four million passengers a day. An eclectic mix of New Yorkers from every age and nationality—from commuters and street musicians to evangelists and curious tourists come together each day under New York's streets. Photographer and sociologist, Camilo Vergara captures these chance encounters in colorful images. In addition to documenting trains and the diverse riders, Vergara depicts New York cityscapes, as seen from the elevated trains that rumble over bridges and wind their way through neighborhoods in Queens, Harlem, Brooklyn, and the Bronx." --book description

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