Broadway runs through Manhattan and the Bronx and all the way up to Sleepy Hollow, New York. Native Americans originally carved the Wickquasgeck trail as the main north-south thoroughfare through Manhattan Island. The Dutch arrived in the 17th century widened it and renamed it Heeren Wegh (or Gentleman’s Way). And then, in 1664, the British renamed it ‘Broadway’ for its unusual width.
For much of my life I’ve lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and Broadway is the beating heart of it for me. There is always something new and interesting to see, if one looks. To paraphrase Samuel Johnson, “when a man is tired of Broadway, he is tired of life; for there is on Broadway all that life can afford.”
Starting early this century, when digital photography was still relatively new, I began photographing people living their lives, plying their trades, and working on (or beneath) this thriving, historic thoroughfare wherever my daily peregrinations have taken me.
(Click any image to see them all enlarged.)
