Underground NYC by Leland Bobbé

As a life long New Yorker I’ve spent a good amount of time people, watching. There is no place better than in the NYC subway system.

I’ve always been fascinated by people’s expressions and body language in the subways. I’ve noticed that the dynamic created when complete strangers are forced into close proximity is very interesting. People are often on top of one another and at the same time I think they try to do their best to insulate themselves, and keep whatever space they have. For this project I decided to use my Iphone rather than my regular camera for sake of being less obvious. When shooting these images I tried to be a fly on the wall, just recording what I saw. People are so used to seeing smartphones that they barely notice that I’m actually taking photos.

I try to make it look like I’m scrolling or texting when I’m actually framing and shooting. I also turn the sound off so the phone doesn’t make the camera click sound when I shoot. I don’t think these shots would have been possible with a regular camera as it would have been impossible to have been inconspicuous. There are some situations where I am really close to the people I’m shooting and they are oblivious.

Upon viewing the first images that I shot I knew that I wanted to shift the reality factor of these images by processing the files using phone apps. First I experiment with different looks in black and white but I wasn’t feeling moved. After much experimenting with some different apps and techniques I finally found a look that I liked using a combination of settings in an app called Snapseed. I was able to create a more surreal colorful look in a rather boring and mundane setting. [Official Website]