Master Gallery Opening Reception
Photographer Nancy Sirkis 
MTA NYC

Date: Friday, May 15
Time: 7:00pm
Location: Main Lobby
7:30pm, Short slide presentation in the Riverside Lobby

About the exhibition, from the artist:

From the time that I began seriously thinking of myself as a photographer, I have worked on projects, a series of images. My subject has been and still is Americana, people and places. Five of my projects resulted in books published by Viking and Little Brown

Current projects include photographing subway stations world wide, small town America, New York City’s five boroughs and most recently, subway riders.

I started out as a photojournalist: I am now moving toward the surreal. What changed was that photography became digital. I am no longer limited in terms of size, dimensions or exposure. I can put images together and show many moments in time in a single image. Working digitally, I am now the creator and director, creating my own set, my own version of the world. I can photograph more than the eye is able to see and my images take place over a period of time rather than a single decisive moment.

The subway is an anonymous place. There is invisibility in anonymity. People sit on the train totally unselfconscious. There is no one to impress, no mask is needed. In the safety of an almost invisibility, people are themselves. The portraits of subway riders are very human. They are portraits of all of us, the faces of the city.

I try to reveal the ambience of the subway ride itself, as an enclosed area, where rows of people from all walks of life sit or stand crowded together, for the most part, unaware of everything going on around them, totally self absorbed with a digital device or very often sleeping. My images are meant to be seen in groups of two or three.

Nancy Sirkis

310 Riverside Drive, New York, NY