Jason Polan "Every Person in New York vol 2" in The New York Times

Jason Polan "Every Person in New York vol 2" in The New York Times

Saturday, Mar 06, 2021

Despite the quixotic scale of his work, Mr. Polan’s vision of New York wasn’t grandiose or especially nostalgic. He drew whoever caught his eye, and that didn’t depend on whether his subjects said in or on line, or if they ate their pizza with a fork. They were just people who happened to be in this particular place. (Crucially, he didn’t insist that people be “New Yorkers.” He allowed each person to be of this city, at least for a moment.) Most of his subjects were anonymous, but their anonymity wasn’t some step on the way to being discovered or transformed by attention. When practiced responsibly, anonymity is one of the primary pleasures of city living...