Broadway malls, Jun 2008 - 242

Taken on the south side of 93rd Street, from the east side of Broadway, heading south. This woman was chatting away on her cellphone, while counting what appeared to be a very thick wad of cash ...

In late June, I spent three afternoons walking up and down Broadway, on Manhattan's Upper West Side, from 72nd Street to Columbia University at 115th Street. My objective was to photograph the variety of people sitting on park benches along what is formally known as the "Broadway malls" -- ie., benches located on the north side and south side of the median strip that separates the uptown side of Broadway from the downtown side.

Since my travels did encompass three separate days, I saw an even wider variety than I might have seen on a single afternoon; on the other hand, the pictures all reflect a single season. At Toni's suggestion, I'm going to make a similar photo-journal in the fall, winter, and spring -- to see if there are entirely different people, or whether it's basically the same people, but wearing different clothes...

In any case, on this occasion I saw young and old, black and white, men and women, rich and poor -- students, children, retired people, widows, widowers, homeless people, construction workers, babysitters, and tourists. As is common in today's society, a remarkable number of them were chatting on cellphones; but it was refreshing to see that many of them were chatting with each other. It was also a little sad to see several people sitting alone, with a wistful, melancholy look on their face.

Most of the park benches were occupied, though a few were empty. Most of the empty benches were fairly uninteresting, but a few looked sufficiently inviting that I felt they deserved a photo of their own.

For the most part, I ignored the photo opportunities that I saw on the sidewalk as I strolled along. But there were two major exceptions, as you'll see midway through this collection: a young man with a bubble-making gadget, blowing the largest soap-bubbles I have ever seen; and a chess game between two middle-aged men. I also photographed a few of the street signs along the way -- actually, I photographed *every* street sign, so that I could identify (and geotag) the location of all the other photographs.

I must have looked fairly serious as I went about my picture-taking activities, for three different people asked me if I was a photographer; and two different people asked me if I liked the Nikon D300 that I was using. As for the subjects of the pictures: most didn't even realize I was photographing them, for I took advantage of a long telephoto lens to shoot them from afar. But a few did notice, and I got a couple of smiles and scowls. If any of them do happen to stumble upon the Flickr site where these pictures will live, I hope they'll feel I've treated them kindly... I love them all ...