New York is my favorite city in the United States. Having grown up overseas in a heavily populated urban area, it’s really the only place that has felt home here.
New York’s status in the pantheon of global cities is downright mythical. Like so many urban centers, it’s constantly changing. On my last trip there more than a year ago, I met a friend on the Lower East Side. What used to be mostly lamp shops and a few bars and storefronts had been transformed by all kinds of new development in the form of steel and glass apartments. To be honest, it kind of reminded me of the bland cubes sprouting up all over D.C. C’est la vie.
Although there is constant change happening in New York, some things do stay the same. For me, Janet Delaney’s book, “Red Eye to New York” (MACK, 2021) brings that realization right home. Despite the many changes, Delaney’s book reminds us of some of the things you’ll still see and experience in New York. In an afterword to the book, Amanda Maddox, associate curator in the department of photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, writes of the time Delaney’s photos show:
“It is the 1980s in New York, the place to be. Brass tokens are still valid subway currency. Ed Koch is the mayor, an office he will hold throughout the decade. Grindhouse theaters litter the Deuce, packaging the grime of New York as a seedy subculture. … SoHo has not yet transformed into a shopping mall.”
Although Delaney herself didn’t live in New York, she was drawn to its magnetism. She lived and worked in San Francisco but had a friend who would hook her up with courier opportunities that would bring her to New York. A lot of those trips were made on a “red eye” flight, thus the title of the book. She’d make numerous trips over the years, soaking up the character and places you’ll still find on the streets.
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A lot has changed, it’s true: New York is far less gritty than it was in Delaney’s time. Rents are higher and a lot of legendary places cease to exist. But you can still run into hot dog vendors selling “dirty water dogs” on the sidewalks; get caught on a stifling subway platform — and maybe catch sight of a scurrying rat — while waiting for an uptown or downtown train; roam the fruit and vegetable stalls of Chinatown; and take a free ferry ride to and from Staten Island, catching a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty as the ferry sluices through the Hudson River. The city is still full of characters, too: buskers, police officers, furry mascots in Times Square and always the teeming masses of pedestrians ambling the streets at all hours.
Although much has changed even from the time Delaney made these photographs, I think there will always be that strong draw that New York has had as a place where people flock to “make it.” There’s still a vitality that comes from a place packed with people of all shapes, sizes and persuasions. You’d be hard pressed to be bored in a place where you can stumble into so many things just by walking down the street. That was true in the ’80s and it’s still true now. And you can see that in every vibrant color photograph in “Red Eye to New York.”
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I’ve lived in St. Louis, Chicago, Seattle, New York, Southeast Asia and now in the Washington area. And I’ve traveled to Marrakesh, Kabul, Tel Aviv, London, Paris and Hong Kong. But I think I can safely say that there’s no place quite like New York. Delaney’s book is a pleasant reminder of many of the things that make New York so special.
You can see more of Delaney’s work on her website. And you can buy her book on the publisher’s website.
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