New York City has a problem with income inequality. And it’s getting worse—the top of the spectrum is gaining and the bottom is losing. Along individual subway lines, earnings range from poverty to considerable wealth. The interactive infographic here charts these shifts, using data on median household income, from the U.S. Census Bureau, for census tracts with subway stations: http://nyr.kr/11mEy8m

Cartoon by David Sipress. For more: http://nyr.kr/Wb7cZb

Richard Barnes, “2nd Ave Subway Excavation #3” (2012) photographed on assignment for The New York Times Magazine.“The first thing that stuck me as we descended the ninety feet below Second Avenue was the scale of the tunnel excavation rising in some places four to five stories above us,” Barnes told me. “The workers were dwarfed by the monumental scale, especially as the tunnels opened up to where the station platforms will one day be built. Next, I couldn’t get over how much like a movie set it felt. I had brought my own lighting equipment with me, as I was expecting it to be extremely dark down there. Instead, I was surprised (and I guess I shouldn’t have been, as workers need to see) by the amount of light in the pit. Jules Verne, Stanley Kubrick, Frank Herbert, and David Lynch’s all but forgettable “Dune” were some of the literary and cinematographic references the site conjured up for me. I strove to bring this quality of otherworldliness to my images, as it was kind of unbelievable that this magical world exists now below the surface of the Upper East Side of Manhattan.” 

This week, Photo Booth will be taking a look at pictures of the New York subway, often by artists with bodies of work devoted to the subject.

Stanley Kubrick, “Life and Love on the New York City Subway (Couple Sleeping on a Subway)” (1946)/Courtesy collections of the Museum of the City of New York.
“Stanley took thousands of images for Look Magazine between 1945 and 1950,” Phil Grosz, from SK Film Archives, told me. “He sold the first image at age sixteen.” The Museum of the City of New York writes, “Many of the shots are candid portraits of people seemingly unaware of any camera, perhaps indicating the use of some sort of spy or buttonhole camera.” 

This week, Photo Booth will be taking a look at pictures of the New York subway, often by artists with bodies of work devoted to the subject.

Cartoon by Michael Crawford. For more: http://nyr.kr/13bghp5

This morning, while riding the downtown 6 train to work, I saw the actual Abraham Lincoln. He walked into the subway car, ducking beneath the doorframe a little awkwardly, like my uncle Sherman, when we finally got him to do the limbo at my cousin Josh’s bar mitzvah.

The first thing I thought was, Wow, Lincoln is tall.

The second thing I thought was, What the hell is Abraham Lincoln doing riding the 6 train?

Continue reading about a strange encounter with President Abraham Lincoln on the NYC subway system: http://nyr.kr/X2Szag

Cartoon by Joe Dator. For more: http://nyr.kr/YmHMVy

Cartoon of the day by Carolita Johnson. For more from this week’s issue: http://nyr.kr/NmoOJX

Cartoon of the day. For more from this week’s issue: http://nyr.kr/PKSXDn

Cartoon of the day.  For more: http://nyr.kr/MTxJ42