Lot Essay
"I wanted to transform the subway from its dark, degrading and impersonal reality into the images that open up our experience again to the color, sensuality and vitality of the individual souls that ride it each day. In transforming the grim, abusive, violent and often beautiful reality of the subway into a language of color, I see the subway as metaphor for the modern world. It is a great social equalizer. As our being is exposed, we confront our mortality, contemplate our destiny, and experience both the beauty and the beast. From the moving train above ground we see glimpses of the city, and as the train moves into the tunnel flourescent light reaches into the gloom, and trapped inside, we all hang on together." - Bruce Davidson, 2003 (from the portfolio colophon)