“Silence in the Streets: Dispatches From New York City Under Lockdown” Photographs by Mark Seliger… Vanity Fair, April 9
Williamsburg Bridge, April 6, 2020, 7:40pm
While reviewing images back in his studio, Seliger saw, for the first time, the inscription on the park’s arch. “Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair. The event is in the hand of God. —Washington.”
Times Square, April 5, 2020, 6:32am
Looking southwest at One World Trade Center from lower Chinatown, Seliger observed only one or two people on the street. “It gives a sense of scale—there’s this girth to everything in New York, and then you see this tiny speck of a human being.”
The temporary 68-bed field hospital outside of Mount Sinai was recently constructed on the park’s baseball
Seliger, accompanied by dog Willie, visited the magnolia trees across from the American Museum of Natural History. “Nature continues to evolve and change in front of you when everything else has stopped,” he says.
In spite of everything, the city still churns autonomically beneath its empty streets. “I’ve always thought those stacks were so magical,” Seliger says of the ubiquitous Manhattan vents.
“I find nightfall to be when it becomes hyperreal”
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve marveled at that landscape,” says Seliger. “There’s such characters in the skyline.”
Central Park, April 7, 2020, 7:37pm
“There’s a significant burden of raising families in New York at this time,” says Seliger. “The silver lining is, hopefully, that we get a chance to reconnect with our families.”
The normally bustling Doyers Street has “always been one of my favorite places to shoot…it took on a different cinematic quality by being that empty.”
