Magazine: Subway - by Isabella Küchler

SUBWAY

The world under the ground

PERSONAL STORIES, NEWS AND MORE ABOUT THE LIFE UNDER THE GROUND PHOTOGRAPHY BY WES HICKS, NY

index True story of a subway accident in NY P-4-5

Poetry by Ralph Caplan P-6-7

People’s behaviour in subways P-8-9-10-11-12-13

Different subway map graphics P-14

Subway graffiti P-15-16-17-18

Typical subway mood P-19

If you see something, say something P-20-21

“DOWN HERE ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN”

PHTOGRAPHY BY OLIVER COLE, NY

3

“A PHOTOGRAPHY THAT DOCUMENTS LIFE UNDER NEW YORK CITY. WE SPENT HOURS AT THIS STATION CAPTURING SUBWAY WORKERS WHO HELP TO KEEP THE CITY RUNNING” O. COLE

IT’S NOT A DRAMA, IT’S JUST SUBWAY.

Not many people were on the platform. A small, thin man with a sun-

I screamed. People came running. Two men in railway uniforms

tanned face. At this moment the man turned. He glanced at me and

seemed to appear from nowhere to take control. ‘Let me pass,

then looked at something behind me and his faceshowed sudden

please. I’m a medical man.’ The doctor stood upright and shook his

panic. He took a step backwards - as though running from danger,

head. ‘Dead. Nothing to be done.’ A worried porter raised his voice.

forgetting that he was standing on the edge of the platform. He went

‘Now then, stand back, will you? ’I suddenly felt sick. I turned and

down. There was a bright flash from the rails anda loud bang.

walked towards the lift. I had to get out into the open air.

4

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOE MCNALLY, NY

“DEAD, NOTHING TO BE DONE”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATT MCNULTY

5

Faceless, unknown, stranger.

“THE EXPERIENCE OF RIDING IN A SUBWAY OR ELEVATOR CALLS TO MIND BERTRAND RUSSELL’S

REMARK THAT MUCH OF MODER

ANXIETY STEMS FROM THE TIME

WE SPEND IN UNNATURAL PROX IMITY TO STRANGERS WITHOUT

THE PRELIMINARY SNIFFING THA IS INSTINCTIVE IN ANIMALS, INCLUDING US.”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CAMILO OTERO

RALPH CAPLAN

Sweep Let people carry huge stuff on the subway It’s funny to see other

The past few months have brought some

passengers reacting to

memorable instances of large object-toting

these weird, massive

aboard the New York City subway. There

objects riding along

was the guy who wedged a sea-foam

with people in subway

motorbike in the doorway of a train, giving

trains at any hour.

nothing more than an unflappable shrug to the peeved would-be boarders. Another fellow just barely squeezed a leather love seat through a train’s doors at Utica Avenue station, and blissfully lounged for the rest of his ride. And then there’s the man who came in the train in the morning rush hour with around 30 brooms in his arms. Crazy.

8

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CAMILO OTERO

“No person may carry on or bring to any facility or conveyance any item that interferes with passenger traffic,” - subway officer in Harlem, NY

Depending on how crowded the train is, it’s a spectrum that runs from tickled amusement to righteous anger. As long as it’s not rush hour, there is no need for anger. Fellow riders should be allowed to transport their homewares and small vehicles in peace.

In this city, sometimes the best way to get home with a couch or scooter is in the belly of a train. I know this from experience, trying to move an eight-foot surfboard from Bed Stuy to Rockaway beach. Denied by two ride-hailing apps, I dragged the thing under my arm down into the subway around 8 p.m. on a Wednesday, taking up about 250 percent more space than I do as a person.

I took care not to whack anyone in the face, though I did obstruct some of the walkway.

Fellow riders did not love me for it. MTA officials wouldn’t have, either. It’s true that during the weekday rush hour, it is never okay to shove anything but yourself on board a train. Undoubtedly, when the train is packed, every rider is obligated to make as much room as possible for others.

9

How can a Napping Subway Commuter’s Brain Know When It’s Their Stop?

How can a Napping Subway Commuter’s Brain Know When It’s Their Stop? It is possible to wake up on time because you’re still hearing the announcements of the stops, even while you sleep. There’s little research about this apparent superpower, a few doctors were game to offer their insights about it.

It’s possible that you’re able to wake up for your particular stop due to an oral cue, like the conductor stating the name of the subway stop over the PA system, or a musician at that station playing the saxophone. Such cues alert your brain that you’ve the motion of the train, in this case it’s the external forces, rather than internal cues, that make you wake up. Another intriguing possibility:

“You have to be awake for a certain

You may not be sleeping until exact-

amount of time to remember,” he

ly your stop — in fact, Chervin said,

explained. Still, not everybody can

you may wake up at each stop,

manage the subway nap without

check if it’s yours, and go back to

missing their stop. You may actually

sleep, all without remembering it.

be able to train yourself to wake up at your appointed destination. In order to do so, you have to get into a routine, so your body can start responding to the pattern.”

10

ARTICLE FROM “THE CUT“ NEWSPAPER

SUBWAY NAP

arrived, Leavey said. Just as with

SUBWAY NAP

PHOTOGRAPHY

BY CAMILO OTERO (TOP), JOE MCNALLY (MIDDLE), GABOR NAGY (BOTTOM)

10

Minutes of sleep

“I was having a stressful day at work: long hours, lots of emails, short deadlines. On the way home, on the F train headed to the Lower East Side, I just couldn’t resit, I was so tired that I fall asleep and woke up 10 minutes later”

11

SUB DRESSED?

R

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CARLOS ANTONORSI, NY

3

93 St

2

42 St Bryant Pk BRO

ADW AY

Franklin St

Q

34 St Herald Sq

R

N

W

W 4 St NYU

ion t-Un 14 S -R-W-4-5-6

88 St

N-R-W

Fulton St

S-4-5-6-7-Metro-North

CHINATOW

93 St

NEW YORK

Sq

L-N-O

A

Dahlem-Dorf Thieplatz

Settiner Bhf.

C

Frankf.

Allee

RichardWagner-Platz

Reichssportfeld

Innsbrucker Platz

A

Knie Seestrasse

Fehrbelliner Platz

B BERLIN

RKETILI

DIDUBE RUSTAVELI ELEKTRODEPO ISANI

VAZHA-PSHAVELA

TOKYO

AVLABARI DELISI SAMGORI

Karunamayi Girish

Q N Shahid Surja Sen

3 2

Maydan Baranagar

Bidhannagar

Phulbagan Maniktala

CALCUTTA

14

SUBWAY MAPS FROM DIFFERENT PLACES OF THE WORLD

SUBWAY GRAFFITI It took decades of work and millions of dollars to clean up the trains. But now officials are seeing a fresh surge of subway graffiti, in which windows are irreparably damaged with acid. Raising the specter of the bad old days, transit officials are vowing to fight a problem they say is even more menacing than the graffiti of decades past. “I’ve seen it on every line, on almost every train,” said Andrew B. Albert

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARTHA COOPER

15

ILLIGAL Oh this is absolutely HORRIBLE! I LOVE IT, it makes my day start WELL I wanna sit in a CLEAN TRAIN Graffiti is NOT a crime

So UGLY! 16

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARTHA COOPER

HURRY UP! POLICE COULD BE HERE ANY MINUTE!

IS GRAFFITI VANDALISM?

18

ARTICLE FROM NYT NEWSPAPER

Anyone who glorifies graffiti needs

most salient characteristic is that

to answer one question: If your

it is a crime. John Lindsay, the

home were tagged during the night

progressive New York politician

without your consent, would you

declared war on graffiti in 1972.

welcome the new addition to your

He understood that graffiti signaled

décor or would you immediately

that informal social controls and law

call a painter, if not the police? The

enforcement had broken down in

question “When does graffiti be-

New York’s public spaces, making

come art?” is meaningless. Graffiti

them vulnerable to even greater

is always vandalism. By definition

levels of disorder and law-breaking.

it is committed without permission

”New York’s conquest of subway

on another person’s property, in an

graffiti in the late 1980s was the first

adolescent display of entitlement.

sign in decades that the city was

Whether particular viewers find any

still governable; that triumph over

given piece of graffiti artistically

lawlessness paved the way for the

compelling is irrelevant. Graffiti’s

urban renaissance that followed.

SHE IS NOT SAD, THAT IS JUST HER SUBWAY FACE

SUBWAY FACE Look into a mirror, unfocus your eyes, and deliberately remove all expression from your face. That’s your subway face. You look the same as the rest of us. It’s not depression, it’s just disengaged and uncommunicative.

Sometimes it’s called “vacant”

Is the mayority of people

because we look like we’re off

really sad in subways? No,

somewhere else, which we us-

they are just disengaged,

ually are. There’s just not a wh- uncommunicative and ole lot in the situation to be em- lost in their own thoughts. otionally present for. It’s an em- It has nothing to do with otional time-out. No one wants

sadness, at all it’s just the

to talk to each other. In our co- subway mood. ntemporary culture, the prospect of communicating with -- or even looking at -- a stranger is virtually unbearable. Everyone around us seems to agree by the way they fiddle with their phones, even without a signal underground. What is it that makes us feel we need to hide behind our screens? Strangers are inherently unfamiliar to us, so we are more likely to feel anxious. To avoid this anxiety, we turn to our phones.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CAMILO OTERO

19

IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING.

Foto Davidson Bruce Shooting South Bronx NY, 1980

01

20

“I saw a few bags left on the platform. I was

02

“A man on the other side of the platform

03

“I came out of the train and first thing, I saw

04

“ Two children, about 3 years old, were sitting

very suspicious so

seemed to have

a man walking behind

alone in the q train

I told an MTA employ-

a knife hidden in his

a woman. I didn’t feel

next to me. I couldn’t

ee. I felt so brave for

right hand. I reported

confortable at all so

think of anything else

saying something.”

it immediately.”

I phoned the MTA.”

then calling the MTA.”

REPORTS OF PEOPLE TO THE MTA

PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRUCE DAVIDSON

21

22

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATTHEW HENRY

New York, A 4-yearold girl who got separated from her mother at a subway station in Brooklyn was later found on Tuesday

LOST IN RAILS morning at a station in Manhattan. Police put out an alert about the child when she was last seen at the Broadway Junction station in Brooklyn. Sources told CBS2 the mom thought her daughter was behind her, but when she turned around, she was gone.

Every police officer searched the area.

NEWS FROM CBS NEW YORK

23

CREDITS Free University of Bolzano - Bozen Faculty of Design and Art Bachelor in Design and Art - Major in Design WUP 18/19 | 1st semester foundation course Project Modul: Editorial Design Design by: Isabella Küchler Magazine | Subway Supervision: Project leader Prof. Antonino Benincasa Project assistants Maximilian Boiger, Gian Marco Favretto Photography: Antonorsi Carlos (p.12-13) Cole Oliver (p. 2-3) Cooper Martha (p. 1,15-17) Davidson Bruce (p. 1,21) Henry Matthew (p. 22) Hicks Wes (front cover) McNally Joe (p. 1,4,11) McNulty Matt (p. 5) Nagy Gabor (p. 11) Otero Camilo (p. 1,7,9,11,19) Taguchi Takahiro (back cover) Paper: Inside pages - Gardamatt Art, 100 g/m² Cover - Curios Metallics silver leaf 120 g/m² Fonts: Helvetica Neue Printed: Bozen - Bolzano, January 2019 Inside pages - Digital Print | Canon Cover - UV - Serigraphy

PHOTOGRAPHY BY TAKAHIRO TAGUCHI MAGAZINE DESIGNED BY ISABELLA KÜCHLER

IT - € 3,50