It was suppose to be the snow storm that paralyzed New York City, but it in the end it turned out to be a bust. Still, a few days ago, everyone cleared out, making it the perfect place to shoot a rarely ever empty New York City. Who else was there on hand but photographer Vivienne Gucwa, a native New Yorker who, for nearly a decade, has been capturing the energy of the city through her lens? She’s behind the recently released NY Through the Lens, a 192 paperback book that Yahoo News described as “filled with beautiful images that capture the color, vibrancy, artistry and uniqueness of New York City.”
We got in touch with Vivienne to ask her what it was like to shoot New York City during this snow storm. “What made this storm stand out versus other storms was that there was a ban on all vehicles aside from snow plows and emergency services. This meant that there were almost no cars on the streets. I have been photographing New York City during snowstorms for the last five years and it’s the first time I have ever experienced streets that were eerily empty. There wasn’t even the comforting presence of taxi cabs in the streets!
“The few people who were out were freely wandering in the middle of typically busy avenues and streets which made this storm extra special and fun to experience.
“New York City is a city that is constantly evolving in one way or the other. Having grown up in New York City, there is a palpable tension that I have experienced my whole life where nostalgia constantly bumps heads with the rapid rate of change that occurs in every aspect of life here. I absolutely love this tension. It makes photographing and writing about the city a bittersweet challenge.”
