NYC at 3am

I keep weird hours. I always have. There's something about 3am that feels like the city finally exhales - like all the performance is over and everyone left is just genuinely there.

I shoot at 3am sometimes. Not because the lighting is good (it's not, you have to work for it) but because the streets are mine. I can stand in the middle of a block in Meatpacking and there's nobody performing for anyone. Just the wet pavement and the glow from a bar that's still technically open.

The city nobody photographs

Everyone photographs New York at golden hour. The bridges, the skyline, the park at that specific moment when everything goes warm. I get it. It's beautiful.

But the New York I actually live in is the 1am diner on 14th Street. The taxi with the broken AC. The hotel lobby at 2am where you're not sure if you're supposed to be there. The elevator mirror selfie when you're still in the dress from whatever you just came from.

That city is harder to photograph because it requires you to be actually awake for it. Most people aren't.

The hotel hallway thing

Some of my favorite shots I've ever taken were in hotel hallways. There's something about the identical doors and the flat lighting and the carpet that goes on forever. It feels like something is about to happen. Or just did.

I posted some of those on Patreon recently. The ones from the hallway at 3am in the silk robe. You'll know them when you see them.

x Seri.