Bruce Davidson's Subway at Hermes

Bruce Davidson's photograph of a subway rider in 1980

Starting this Friday and running till February 28, the gallery at the Hermes store (691 Madison Avenue) will be showing photographer Bruce Davidson's subway photographs. Davidson, who work also includes civil rights moments and a study of an East Harlem street, captured that distinct period of time during the 80s when subway cars were filled with graffiti, crime was terrible, and the Me decade was just beginning. You can see more of his photographs at Magnum Photos.

More about the exhibit here and more about graffiti in New York from Gothamist.

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By Jen Chung in Arts & Entertainment on January 19, 2004 11:15 AM

Comments [rss]

AnT

I must say the store front display at Hermes was great. The display looked so realistic. Did anyone know that some of the subway memorabilia can be bought off the mta website, they have alot of interesting stuff from the redbird fleet.

AnT

I must say the store front display at Hermes was great. The display looked so realistic. Did anyone know that some of the subway memorabilia can be bought off the mta website, they have alot of interesting stuff from the redbird fleet.

aaron wall

I just read a great book about that time frame and area. Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book called "The Tipping Point," which would be an excellent read for anyone interested in that topic...that is the first picture I have seen of the subway car all messed up though.

karen

i love this type of nyc history! i'm a non-new yorker, but i've long been fascinated with the city. thanks for posting that link... it kept me busy all afternoon. :)

ShinGo

Reading Jake's comments regarding The Warriors makes me wonder: wouldn't it be cool if they shot the film in the early 80's and included a gang called The Stockbrokers? They would all wear white face paint(like the Baseball Furies), blue pinstripe Brooks Brothers suits and wield briefcases filled with bricks as weapons.

"Warriors ... come out to playeeeyaaay... and let me look at your stock portfoliooooooo."

tien

it seems to me that the mta doesn't like to remember when the trains had graffiti on them. fools!

i have memories of trains speeding by on the express tracks that were covered in graffiti. while some where just your standard run of the mill stuff, there were also some trains that looked really cool with the graffiti.

immediately after watching the train pass in awe, the muggers stole my milk money.

harry

these are great shots. new york really was much more interesting before it was turned into a terrorist targeted disneyfied yuppie wasteland.

joe s

I was about to ask one of you, Tien, if any of the cars in the museum had grafitti. Now I know.

990000

I live this one and also this one and this one too

tien

but the graffiti is great! rachelle and i went to the transit museum yesterday and i kind of wish that they had old train cars with graffiti in them.

jake

jesus- it's just like The Warriors. I remember when the subways were like that- when I was a kid, in the early 1980s, it was terrifying being down there.