In all the times I’ve been to NYC for work or on a personal trip, I had never photographed in Times Square. My felling in general is that it represents all that is amazing and terrible about American culture at the same time, in one place. For mainly that reason, I have just stayed away. Last week I had some time after dinner while in town for work and decided I should probably head into the vortex just to see if there was anything good I could get. In terms of the book I’ve been trying to put together for the last couple of years, something from Times Square could make sense. I got there at about 10:30 PM and as one would expect, it was packed. It was pretty easy to take pictures of people without them noticing because everyone was staring up at the screens and digital billboards. Also, cameras where everywhere. I found myself most interested in all the people taking selfies and photos of others in front of this ridiculousness and of the giant screens themselves. It was exactly as I said before, all that is amazing and terrible about American culture at the same time, in one place. I was there for about half an hour and totally overwhelmed by the weird lighting and crowds of tourists. Here’s a couple of the better ones. The guy taking a picture with his iPad and the woman posing for a selfie are my favorites. I might try to see if there is a place for one of them in the working draft of my book.
