Private Story
Sotto Voce
In summer of 2015 I stumbled upon a book revealing secrets of New York City. As a long time New Yorker myself I was intrigued as well as surprised, is there a corner of NYC that I haven’t explored, I wondered rhetorically. One such secret was the Amtrak train tunnel running along the Upper West Side and continuing to Penn Station midtown, sometimes known as Freedom Tunnel.
I was intrigued, and that summer I paid the tunnel a visit, equipped with a camera. I was awe-struck; the space felt imposing yet magical, demanded respect, to be left unperturbed. A gentle draft is sensed, a breathing tunnel. The quiet, the paradoxical sense of serenity in an otherwise active train tunnel, is gently disrupted at random temporal installations by a water drop uncoupling from the ceiling, its contact with the ground delicately echoing throughout and across the tunnel. I think about the endless souls who journey along the tunnel likely oblivious to the dark cavern.
And yet that first visit I was so terrified by the tunnel that I dared not use a tripod, ready to dash at the slightest warning. The subsequent visits entailed preparation the previous evening, recording the trains’ schedule so I know when I can relatively safely place my tripod on the railroad.
The light filtering into the tunnel from above is of soft nature, diffusing into the space and painting the walls. In other visits the light takes on shaft-like formation, creating a cathedral-like atmosphere. It is the sense of calmness and serenity of the expansive space defined by the tunnel that I intended to capture in my photographs. I started the project shortly after the 2015 visit. Yet the reverence that I felt toward the tunnel meant I visited the space sparsely for the first few years, once or twice a year. It was not until 2019 that I systematically photographed the tunnel stretch from 120th to 103rd Streets. I cannot deny or overemphasize the adrenaline rush that I invariably experience upon entering the tunnel, all six senses fully active.
The project was planned to wrap up in May of 2020, but the arrival of COVID pandemic abruptly ended it somewhat earlier than projected, with my last visit coinciding with the arrival of the virus to New York City, March of 2020.
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