{"id":182517,"date":"2025-04-13T06:53:32","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T06:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/activist\/the-mundane-bliss-of-new-yorks-subways-in-the-70s\/"},"modified":"2025-04-13T06:53:32","modified_gmt":"2025-04-13T06:53:32","slug":"the-mundane-bliss-of-new-yorks-subways-in-the-70s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=182517","title":{"rendered":"The mundane bliss of New York\u2019s subways in the \u201970s"},"content":{"rendered":"


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NYC Passengers 1976-1981<\/strong> \u2014 During a very different decade in NYC, which bounced between rich creativity and sketchiness, photographer Joni Sternbach captured the idiosyncratic isolation found on its rail networks.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

In 1972, Joni Sternbach<\/a> returned to the Bronx<\/a>, the borough of her birth. From her fifth-floor apartment on the Grand Concourse, she watched the trains roll up and down the elevated tracks, the sound of rolling thunder bringing back childhood memories. \u201cWhen riding it as a kid, I always wanted to be in the first or last car so I could see the track ahead of or behind me,\u201d Sternbach says, drifting into a poetic reverie of summer days and nights, when trains had wicker seats and sliding windows. <\/p>\n

Then 18, Sternbach enrolled at the School of Visual Art and naturally gravitated towards the dark room. That fall, the Museum of Modern Art presented the first posthumous Diane Arbus<\/a> exhibition, the uninhibited displays of personality matched only by Arbus\u2019s unwavering gaze. \u201cI was inspired by her nerve and directness in her picture,\u201d says Sternbach, who would go on to craft her own chronicle of the New York<\/a> underground in NYC Passengers 1976-1981<\/a> <\/em>(Caf\u00e9 Royal Books<\/a>). <\/p>\n

The first photograph Sternbach made in the series was of two couples lost in each other\u2019s charms, their effortless beauty and glamour the stuff of Hollywood<\/a>
\nfilms. \u201cThese couples were aware that I was taking their photo, but I think they found it amusing or felt complimented by the attention,\u201d says Sternbach, who submitted the picture to a contest in the Village Voice<\/a><\/em>. \u201cIt won second prize, by their photo editor Fred McDarrah<\/a>. That emboldened me to continue shooting,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

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  • Read next:\u00a0No one captured Greenwich Village\u2019s heyday like Fred W. McDarrah<\/a> <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    As a young woman determined to make it on her own, Sternbach remembers \u201970s New York as a \u201cWild West\u201d that was equal parts creative and precarious. \u201cIt was a time of experimentation and because the city had poor areas, the real estate was cheap. One could be an artist, have a meaningless job and make their work,\u201d says Sternbach, who worked part time as a salesgirl at Macy\u2019s and later as a waitress in a Chelsea restaurant. <\/p>\n

    But Sternbach remembers feelings of loneliness and vulnerability as a teen on the brink of adulthood. \u201cI felt that my camera was a sort of protection for me and that making pictures was an antidote to my problems,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

    The result was an act of devotion exemplified by her portrait of a woman from Clark Street Station, who Sternbach imagined as a character straight out of an Edward Hopper painting. They kept similar hours and were often on the same train. \u201cWhen I noticed her sitting opposite me one evening, I couldn\u2019t believe my luck,\u201d Sternbach says. \u201cI made several pictures of her and even raised the camera to my eye, which I did not do for every\u00a0photograph.\u201d <\/p>\n

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    • Read next: Vibrant snapshots of New York\u2019s subway riders<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Reviewing her contact sheets, Sternbach realised her photographs on the train captured the curious paradoxes of New York life. \u201cIt was a gathering place where hundreds of people passed through and there was a lot to look at and parse,\u201d she says. \u201cI think I projected my loneliness and yearning for closeness upon the many people I photographed.\u201d<\/p>\n

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      NYC Passengers 1976-1981 by Joni Sternbach<\/a> is published by Caf\u00e9 Royal Books<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

      Miss Rosen is a freelance arts and photography writer, follow her on X<\/a>.
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