Photo Essay: People Watching in Verdi Square, New York City
New York City’s Verdi Square, located Broadway & West 72nd Street, right across the street from the 72nd street IRC train,has a complicated history.
As one of the city’s oldest parks, Verdi Square attracted many musicians – Enrico Caruso, Lauritz Melchior, Igor Stravinsky – until in the 1960s the square became a drug-infested neighborhood filled with crime.
Today, Verdi Square is entirely redecorated and landscaped, making it one of the most high-class areas of New York City to live in. It’s also the perfect location to capture snapshots of everyday, regular people as they go about their day.
1. “If this is not a real owl, then what the heck is it doing up here in this tree?”
2.How many cell phones can you count in this image?
3. A paradise for pigeons.
4. Rainy day in Manhattan on the way to Zabars for coffee and chocolate.
5. Oh, my. Oh, my. Is that what they’re doing on Broadway these days?
6. Bicycle nomad, meet mismatched-shoe lady.
7.So is this guy happy to be having this conversation or not?
8.Who needs boring socks?
9. Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane!
10. Who are all these guys?
11. Spring in Verdi Square.
12. And I love you, too…
13.Meditation in the sun.
14. Hit by a taxi, this man tells his story using handwritten signs. Another sign says he was hit by an 18-wheeler and and became paralyzed due to brain damage. Which do you believe?
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14 Comments... join the discussion!
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Might be a place we’ll have to check out in NYC, eh?
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People watching anywhere can put me in a “travel” state of mind. I love to sit in the sun and watch the world flow past, unaware of my perspective as a watcher.
Great idea for a photo essay.↵ -
Agree with Josh – watching the world flow by is an inspiring and grounding experience.
Little concerned about where the guy holding the “Puppetry of the Penis” paper’s left hand is, though…
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Nick! You slay me.
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Never knew that bit of trivia about Stravinsky. How appropriate (re: Le Sacre du Printemps).
These are my favorite kind of photo essays: everyday scenes that are magical just by capturing and witnessing them.
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I lived in NYC for almost 15 years. Fifteen years. And I passed this place all the time. I mean, the 72nd street subway is a hub. I went to Zabars. I went to H&H bagels not too far away. It’s near the 79th street boat basin. And I am a huge people watching fan. Yet I never spent any time in or watching Verdi Square.
I also love how these photos so perfectly captures NYC and the nutty cross-section of people who live there.
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#2 made me laugh out loud. Great photos! Makes me want to see NYC in the spring.
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Leigh did a fantastic job of picking out some of the best shots that I’ve been able to take in Verdi Square these past few years. But if you’d like to see more, here’s a Flickr album of Verdi Square photos I’ve taken so far in 2010:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yourdon/sets/72157623034498959/
and another Flickr album of Verdi Square photos taken in 2009:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yourdon/sets/72157614550880665/
and yet another one of Verdi Square photos from 2008:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yourdon/sets/72157611175376781/
Cheers,
Ed↵ -
Haha, great photo essay! Your captions really put the icing on the cake. Good stuff!
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Love #10 – Missing people? Personal ads?
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Loved this. That mismatched shoe lady is classic. Had to do a double-take there. I’ll assume it has something to do with her using a cane, but still…
People-watching is one of my favourite things to do, and it’s free…yet I end up not doing a lot. Why is it so hard to just sit somewhere for a good amount of time and just observe? Always feeling like you gotta be doing something, or be somewhere. I’m inspired, thanks!
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Im a native NYer and was thinking huh? verdi square? never heard of it. Fabulous photos, but even by the end, I couldnt guess what/where the hell verdi square is. Which is kind of ironic since I used to live 2 blocks from here. Back in the day we knew it as Needle Park. Looking a lot spiffier than back in those drug infested days!!
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It is hard to see but the t-shirt in Photo #10 looks like pictures of the artist Keith Haring.
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