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One Year on the Subway
By
Jacob Dobkin
Published Dec 3, 2005
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jacob Dobkin
Published Dec 3, 2005
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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Congratulations to Travis Ruse, whose Express Train photoblog is celebrating its one year anniversary. We read Travis's site every day-- it's an amazing window into life in the city, and a must-see for train-buffs around the world. Travis writes:
Today marks the one-year anniversary of posting one image every day from my commute. If you stuck it out and watched every day, I hope you found something worth the visit. I could go on and on about all the wonderful and not so wonderful things I learned and experienced with this exercise. Suffice to say I have a very different view of my commute now than I did before I started.
I chose these four images, one from each season (yes the seasonal changes are reflected underground), with the same criteria I used to edit all my other images. It was the mood I was in. I’ve noticed that I could tell what was going on in my head when I looked back at my daily edits. Some of the most popular images were ones I over looked the first time. It's funny how I fall out love with images pretty quickly. If you ask me which images I think are the most successful I'll probably answer the ones I just shot. I hope that's a reflection of the fact that I'm still learning and not that I have ADD.
So thanks for all the critiques, encouragement and ideas. I set out to try and reach other people around the globe in addition to citizens right here in the city. From the response I’ve received I think I've achieved that goal. It's been so wonderful to hear that this site has helped others get to know a little more about what it means to be resident of New York City. Thank you for sharing your stories and subway experiences.
Not sure what the next step is but I'll probably keep at it for the time being. One thing for sure is I'm going to take a little more time off now that this marathon is over. See below for details for a little R&R Friday night.
Thanks and see you underground!
Travis
While we're on the subjects of MTA sites, check out two other sites chock-full of subway photos: Forgotten-NY's trains page, and Chiba's great Subtext blog. What's that? You want more? Fine: check out Joe's Abandoned Stations site, the hugely large NYCSubway site, and Subchat, the message board for hardcore subway fans.
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Travis Ruse
Jacob Dobkin
Jake Dobkin co-founded Gothamist with Jen Chung. In 2019, Jake released Ask a Native New Yorker, a book based on his Gothamist advice column.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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