On the Streets: New York

In the summer of 2008, I moved to New York City from London. I'd spent a lot of time in New York before on short visits over the years, even lived here briefly in 1979-80, but this is the first time I truly moved in. Manhattan is an island. Everyone knows this yet it is this peculiar condition that makes New York what it is. There is no room to grow out, only up, intensifying everything: crowded, dirty, filled with the aspirations and detritus of humanity and with an unceasing background roar. There is no real quiet. It is an urban organism unlike any other, with more neuroses immediately on view than anywhere else. This is probably why it is such a good place for Street Photography: It may slow, but it never stops.