Good morning. It’s Thursday. Today we’ll look at a photo and video exhibition that has transformed a transit hub. We’ll also get details on the church on the Upper West Side that wants to tear down its landmark building.
Brandon Stanton, the photographer behind the best-selling book “Humans of New York” and the viral social media project linked to it, thought of Grand Central Terminal as more than a transit hub. He thought of it as an art gallery and set out to turn it into one.
The result, “Dear New York,” is what he described as “a love letter” to New York and New Yorkers.
Those who don’t love advertisements may love “Dear New York” more than Madison Avenue account executives — or their clients. Stanton arranged for the 150 digital screens in Grand Central that usually show ads to run “a very choreographed piece of video art” until “Dear New York” closes on Oct. 19. It is, by all accounts, the first time in memory that Grand Central has been ad-free. (Or almost ad-free. On a walk-through, Stanton pointed out one screen that was still playing an advertisement. He said it would be gone in a day or two.)
But with no ads above the tracks for trains to Branchville, Bronxville or Pleasantville — and with photographs projected on the columns beneath the sky ceiling on the main concourse and filling the walls above the steps to the 4, 5 and 6 subway platforms — Grand Central is different.
“It’s not like I etched anything into stone” or that the building “is being irrevocably changed,” he said. “It’s taking on a new form for two weeks. But I would say, by removing all of the advertising, in a way, we’ve taken it back more to its original intent, which was to be a place of civic gathering and civic purpose.”
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The post In Grand Central, a Visual Love Letter to New York appeared first on New York Times.
