Ever thought you were born in the wrong time period? Like, maybe your interests and hobbies differ greatly from your peers? Or maybe your sense of fashion feels like Bohemia and your taste in music sounds like South Bronx, when it was still burning?
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The streets of New York City gave rise to decades of transformation and progressiveness, from the opening of the first subway line in 1904, to the Harlem Renaissance that spanned the 1920s, to the peak of Latino immigrants by 1960, to disco and pre hip-hop in the late ’70s.
In a climate where the vast majority is governed by the digital and corporate, there’s nothing quite like a series of black & white images to launch you into the thrilling days of yesteryear, by so strikingly evoking a retro rawness of sorts.
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Thanks to this really nifty visualization tool in the digital collection of now-free images from the New York Public Library, we’ve unearthed a number of stills depicting New Yorkers riding the subway, in an era where afros and graffiti ruled the underground scene.
Take a gander in the gallery above.
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Image Credit: Alen MacWeeney, 1977 -
Image Credit: Alen MacWeeney, 1977 -
Image Credit: Alen MacWeeney, 1977 -
Image Credit: Alen MacWeeney, 1977 -
Image Credit: Alen MacWeeney, 1977 -
Image Credit: Alen MacWeeney, 1977 -
Image Credit: Alen MacWeeney, 1977 -
Image Credit: Alen MacWeeney, 1977 -
Image Credit: Alen MacWeeney, 1977 -
Image Credit: Alen MacWeeney, 1977 -
Image Credit: Alen MacWeeney, 1977 -
Image Credit: Alen MacWeeney, 1977 -
Image Credit: Alen MacWeeney, 1977 -
Image Credit: Alen MacWeeney, 1977 -
Image Credit: Alen MacWeeney, 1977 -
Image Credit: Alen MacWeeney, 1977 -
Image Credit: Alen MacWeeney, 1977 -
Image Credit: Alen MacWeeney, 1977