My Name is Francesco Chiot, I am photographer originally from Italy. My interest revolves around social and cultural issues. I am currently based in New York.
My project is called "The 8 Million Audience", it explores the culture of subway musicians in New York through a music driven short documentary that gives the viewer a sense of how the music on the platforms substantially transforms the ugly and noisy experience of commuting through the tunnels and what an invaluable overlooked cultural layer it is for the city of New York.
I gave the work a very personal interpretation using an emotive and psychedelic style making it different from common documentaries and from anything I have seen regarding this topic.
I feel the value of my work stands in the emotional journey it gives to the viewer, I will try to give you now a sense of what my project is about through a rough cut, and a small narration I wrote to give myself the right inspiration and mood while editing, based on true episodes.
It is a friday on an early afternoon in harlem, and I am walking down the subway station stairs again. I feel overdressed, and uncomfortable, as I wait for the train. The gray noise of the ventilation is slowly replaced by the sound of buffalos on a plain, a train is approaching the station.
Forty people on my wagon makes it a unusually comfortable ride, with some personal space and time to look around. I see a lot of headphones, people spacing out in their journey listening to music, or just pretending. A child is crying in a stroller, his father looking nervously around. Another older boy is laughing with his grandma while his brother is sleeping on his shoulder. Somewhere around 34th street three percussionists board the train. They sit on stools and start a groove. By the next station they have the people around them hooked by the rhythm and cheerfulness. The wagon clapping, the hat going round, few bucks falling into it. Comes west4 and the band rushes off, and into another train, this time uptown bound.
On the platform of W4 theres little noise. Often on the orange line lower level you can find a drummer playing a full drumkit, with guests ranging from a tip tap dancer, a saxophonist, another percussionist. In all my thursday trips to brooklyn he never missed an appointment, me staring from the train window and him playing with animal energy. As I am walking out towards Waverly place, I stop on my feet hearing a trumpet playing. On the opposite platform, an old looking man is playing the trumpet to an empty audience. Ten, fifteen second at the time, then resting. From afar I can't tell if he is tired or sad.
Coming back in the station minutes later, I run into him again. He is wearing a denim jacket over tennis shoes, and a sharp look in his eyes. He is playing a melancholic version of My Funny Valentine. A woman behind him looks suffering in this melancholic mood, her eyes full, her mouth shivering her hand reaching for the rail. All this emotion is shaking me to the roots, I am transported into a different time, a story of past lovers, a black and white love movie.
The train comes in, the musician stops playing, the woman boards, the magic is over.
His name is George.
"I normally try not to play that loud, i try to keep it soft.. " [...]
"I wanna play so that people can relax a little, not get too exited, I try to make everybody mellow, instead of being excited." [... ]
II've been playing over thirty years [...] I'm 65 [...]
It is a busy friday afternoon in Union Square, and between the herd of commuters on the NQR platform a classic guitar resounds as crystal. Sitting on a tiny stool, his back at the green metal column, a small amplifier and some change in the guitar bag open in front of him.A plastic sign identifies him as Thalys Petersen, a paper note sells CDs for 10 $. Be it the black jacket or the winter beanie, I feel connected to this thirty something boy as he plays with intensity, his eyes closed, something I identify as a brazilian tune. Around him, gazes of approval, the eventual tip falling into the bag, his eyes still closed.
Some weeks later I meet him again, in an empty platform, the empty tip bag metaphor of a slower day in the business.
"i really use the subway to grow musically, my main goal is to pay my rent, of course, make a living, of course is make money, but my main reason is the way i found to learn how to play guitar... I am self taught so it's perfect.. Sometimes i can play the same song all day, no one is going to complain."
"My goal here is to study, I want to study Jazz"
Spring has been a sorry joke this year and I am coming back from Astoria in a shiny but freezing day. Changing trains at Lexington avenue I am welcomed by a scene from another time. A young boy with curly long hairs and a black shirt is playing keys next to a tall boy playing a full drum kit blindfolded. The platform is not so big and all this setup is making people move tightly around the drum kit to enter and exit the train. They play a jam session of electronic keys and drums, the melody embraces me and transports me in a picture of a past future possible, with neon lights, denim punks and people dressing bright colors roaming around on skates. A sci-fi picture from the late 80s, even though the two musicians are clearly in their early twenties. I approach them and they invite me to their reharsal room, far into brooklyn.
The place looks like a squat, a kitchen decorated with posters and pictures from gigs and musicians, and old vinyls. The big living room is empty except for a fake electric fireplace and a grand piano, feels like a set for a music video, in between takes.
There are rooms on the upper floor, and I hear a bass playing through one of the closed doors, someone is practicing.
The basement is a rehearsal room, dark and raw, and smokey. Drumkits, guitars, electric pianos are amassed around half of the room, three people frantically looking at the computer hosting the audio effects for the keys Ryan is playing. "Anthony is letting us stay and play until he fixes the roof" Eliah, the drummer, says. Later, talking with Anthony, I learn his plans to turn the house into a secret music venue for hosting underground events.
