SUBWAYGRAM

New York City subways – the century-old transit system has survived two World Wars, the Great Depression, and Hurricane Sandy. It and the millions of citizens that rely on it as their daily lifeline will also survive the COVID-19 pandemic. Subwaygram captures mobile phone street portraits of the diverse community of riders two years before and two years after the first case was confirmed in New York City and the commonalities in the fleeting moments of their journeys.

Chris Maliwat is a street-portrait photographer who captures surreptitious moments of everyday people on their journeys in the cities where they live. In a world where people consciously and often obsessively cultivate an image to portray, he takes candid portraits—often without being noticed by the subject—to show how people look when they are unposed and unmasked.

Chris started with black & white film photography but now shoots primarily with his mobile phone and mirrorless full-frame cameras. Chris received an arts grant from the Stanford Arts & Technology Initiative and has studied photography at Stanford University and the International Center of Photography in New York City.

Aaron L. Morrison is a New York City-based journalist whose work on race, criminal justice and grassroots social movements has been published by The Associated Press, the global nonprofit news wire. His work has also appeared in The Appeal, Mic and a handful of regional newspapers across New Jersey. Aaron is an adjunct lecturer in the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, where he teaches a course about race reporting.