Subway, Bruce Davidson, 1980

More often than not, Bruce Davidson's photographic practice led him into exploring and documenting the taboos that we associate with a class or region of people who may be overlooked. Living in New York and the culture of that city definitely played a role in his attention to detail in capturing for lack of better words the "soul" of a space. This project emerged as a retort to the increasingly negative light the New York subway system faced over a decade. Contrasting this state of disrepair to the passengers the uniformity of the setting reinforces the idea of the subway and public transportation in general as a great social equalizer. People have much more to offer if you have the awareness to appreciate them as more than what their environment can provide. The graffiti that fills the cars and the distinctiveness of passengers' expressions that Davidson manages to capture challenge your ability to think of public transit as an impersonal space. Part of the experience in choosing to ride the subway is allowing yourself to be perceived and forcing yourself to really understand other people and how they live. Despite what racial or economic differences may exist above ground everyone has somewhere to go. As something of a narrative-driven street photographer, Davidson spends a lot of time thinking about how a city of so many different facets can be condensed so simply that most people are completely unaware of it. The majority of Davidson's work was done in black & white however color was chosen for this series as a means of more directly conveying the diversity of characters and lifestyles that interact with each other in this space. One of my favorite parts about living in a real metropolitan city like Chicago was my daily interaction with strangers. Living in that routine has made me a much more open-ended person and continues to influence the way I take photos of people. (Week 13)