It happened in a fraction of a second when the New York City subway car door opened and Paul Matzner saw both men texting. He framed them and clicked, but it wasn’t until Paul returned to his Shorewood, Wis., home that he realized the social statement he had captured.
“We live and work in close proximity, but we spend an inordinate amount of time not acknowledging each other when we are together,” Paul said. “Mass transit seems to heighten that isolation.”
Paul spent four April days in New York to make pictures and visit photography galleries, including Howard Greenberg, Lawrence Miller, Bruce Silverstein, and Felicia Anastasia. He had never been to Brooklyn, but on a “space to spare” website he found an apartment in the borough.
He spent his time walking the streets and exploring Prospect Park, the DUMBO area – Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass – the Fort Greene area, as well as making frequent trips to Manhattan to visit such places as Bryant Park, Central Park, Chelsea, Chinatown, and the High Line, the new elevated park in lower Midtown.
