NYC Subway 1981 Series By Christopher Morris

These photos were taken by photographer Christopher Morris in his series “NYC Subway 1981” showing the gritty nostalgia of the New York City subways in the 1980’s.

In these previously unpublished photographs from 1981, recently rediscovered decades later, Christopher Morris embedded himself into the heart of New York City’s underworld—the subway system. With ektachrome film and a magenta filter, Morris captured the mix of grime, decay and erratic movement that epitomize a moment in New York’s history memorialized in popular culture as a dark, dire metropolis. With New York’s subterranean transportation as his backdrop, Morris contrasts rebellious graffiti with blase attitudes and counter-culture performances with seas of expressionless commuters to show rare moments of intimacy amid a gritty, hard-edged urban metropolis.