The Neighborhood

When tourists think of New York City, they often envision The Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Times Square and other landmarks. They are missing the real New York. “The point” of the city is in the diversity of bounded lives and personal histories of people who live here. (This is something you’ll never feel in my hometown, Moscow). If you want to experience New York, you won’t go to Liberty Island or corner of Lexington and 42nd street. The real New York exists in every block, in every fractal of crossed streets. My block is one of these side streets. It’s cramped in between 46th and 45th from south to north, and in between 2nd and 3rd from east to west. Representatives from many different places, located on this tiny territory, are my New York. This project is in memoriam of my father, Steven Seymour, who lived on 46th and 2nd between 1978 and 2014. He was a real “people person” and everyone on the block knew him and loved him. I started to shoot this project a week after he passed away and every subject shared many stories with me and grieved along with me.