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NYC's subway conductors have their personal style on full display in a new book
By
Ryan Kailath
Published Nov 15, 2024
Modified Nov 18, 2024
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Photo by Sirui Ma / Courtesy of Sirui Ma
By
Ryan Kailath
Published Nov 15, 2024
Modified Nov 18, 2024
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Artist Sirui Ma didn’t think about making a series of subway conductor portraits until after she’d left New York.
The photographer, who shoots documentary-style fashion and advertising jobs for a living, grew up in Beijing and in Rego Park, Queens, where she attended Forest Hills High School, before moving to London in her early twenties.
“At my core, I still feel like a New Yorker,” Ma said. “And when I’m away is when I feel the most appreciation and affinity for the city.”
An image of a conductor featured in "Subway Portraits."
Photo by Sirui Ma / Courtesy of Sirui Ma
Hence her new book, “Subway Portraits,” for which Ma photographed subway conductors at four different stations that are significant to her. Those are her first stop, Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue; the A and C lines' Utica Avenue station in Crown Heights, where she stayed with a friend while shooting; and the West Fourth Street and Broadway-Lafayette stations, where her work often takes her.
“Growing up in big cities, I always appreciated how public transit opens the world to you as an inner city kid,” Ma said. Her gratitude for that sense of independence prompted her to dedicate a book to subway conductors.
Ma said she was also impressed by the personal style conductors manage to express within the confines of their uniforms. That’s why she chose to shoot her subjects in a uniform way — in their workplace, on the train, in the fleeting moments where they were stopped at the station.
Ma said that in the process of working on this project, she perfected her patter, asking each subject for permission while handing out her contact info.
An image of a subway conductor, from "Subway Portraits."
Photo by Sirui Ma / Courtesy of Sirui Ma
“Shooting in this uniform way meant you can see more of their personalities and differences come through,” Ma said, though she did get to learn more about their lives outside the MTA.
“Some of them, I found their Instagrams and you would never be able to tell they worked in the MTA,” Ma said. “They’re just IG baddies. One of them was on a yacht in a sexy outfit. I love it.”
The back half of the book includes iPhone photos Ma took on the subway from 2012 through 2024, grouped by themes such as subway performers, interesting outfits, hairstyles and flyers.
The book has brief essays from New Yorker writer and Pulitzer Prize-winning memoirist Hua Hsu, as well as an interview between Ma and one of her subjects, a conductor named Kyata Collins from Far Rockaway who talks about her favorite line (the W) and about Mayor Eric Adams being “all talk.”
Ma said she is inspired by photographers like Nan Goldin and Dawoud Bey, and would be honored if her book were remembered for capturing a certain time and place in New York.
“I’d love if it became considered alongside amazing photographers who have photographed the subway like Bruce Davidson,” Ma said. “This project captures such a specific moment in time in New York City.”
You can also learn more about the book at Ma's website.
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