I love photos of old NYC. I love seeing these snapshots in time, recorded fleeting moments of people walking the streets, hanging in the parks, going to parades and events, just "doing their 'thang", oh-so-many decades ago, in a city that no longer exists.
It's history being made before our eyes. These photos collapse time between then and now, taking us into a momentary blip across an expanse of time.
When we consume history, either textually or visually or otherwise, it's easy for our minds to assume that these people knew or were even thinking about the history they were living through -- that they somehow knew what was coming. Of course, they didn't just like we don't know what's going to happen in the future. Looking at this new batch of 1970s street scenes, you see New Yorkers enjoying themselves, being carefree -- they didn't know what the future would be and, happily, they didn't care.
They were living for today and we get to remember them, so many tomorrows afterwards.
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