Photo Diary: NYC Shawn Bruce

I LOVE TO WANDER THE STREETS PHOTOGRAPHING PEOPLE. IN A CITY OF EIGHT MILLION, IT’S EXCITING TO BUMP INTO REGULARS AND EVEN TOURISTS. THE TWO GROUPS COLLIDE AND CREATE MOMENTS THAT COMBUST. IT KEEPS THINGS EXCITING FOR ME.

Photos & Words: Shawn Bruce / @shawnpbruce

I moved to New York City in 2021 after spending a few years in Washington, D.C. There’s something about the East Coast that has always spoken to me. Growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, I was always on the hunt to make photographs of familiar scenes. In New York, everything changes quickly. It’s exciting… and depressing.

I started taking walks with my camera, circling Manhattan in an effort to understand my new home. At first, I spent a lot of time walking around the typical street photographer hangouts — 5th Ave, Washington Square Park, and the like. It took me a few months to find a part of the city that spoke to me.

Three years in, I spend much of my time wandering around Wall Street, the Lower East Side (LES), and Alphabet City. Each of these neighborhoods connects to the last and offers a unique perspective on the city.
The light constantly changes throughout Wall Street as the sun bounces through buildings in an effort to reach the ground.

"I chase the light, looking for pockets of highlights in the streets. I like to photograph what happens between the shadows."

The dog walkers, the execs on quick lunch meetings, and the countless delivery drivers racing to their next tip.
LES is still filled with graffiti and characters. You can buy a cheap bottle of water through an unmarked window on the streets of Chinatown and swing by Harold Hunter Park to watch skaters under the noisy Manhattan Bridge. You can eat greasy pizza next door to a cocktail bar, just across the street from an electronics repair shop; they all feel equally at home here.

Alphabet City builds upon its neighbor and offers a host of tattoo shops, coffee hangouts, and Tompkins Square Park. I find myself at the park regularly. It’s a cultural hub filled with live music, skaters, basketball players, and artists alike. It still feels like the New York I envisioned growing up in the Midwest.

My photography has grown considerably since moving to the city. I often bounce back and forth between photographing in black and white and in colour. When one palette gets boring, I’ll move to the next. My setup remains mostly the same, though: my sling bag, filled with my Leica M body of the day, a 28mm f1.4, a 50mm f2, and whatever fisheye I’ve gotten my hands on and haven’t smashed yet. Today, that’s the Asthori 10.5mm f8. The 28 and 50 lend themselves well to photographing people and environments, while the fisheye helps me connect with the roots of skateboard photography.