New York Subway Portraits

Halloween Underground is the culmination of twenty years of
photographing people dressed up in fantastical, outlandish
costumes against the backdrop of the drab, gritty reality of the
New York subway. Seymour Licht captured revelers preening in
their outfits as the prelude to the largest Halloween parade in the
world - or some private night out where creativity is the
currency and mystery and flirtation the prize. The subway
becomes the unofficial backstage to the main events of the night,
the dark tunnels and ghastly lit platforms, the holding room of
the supernatural, eerie and phantasmagorical protagonists. It is
only on Halloween that you can enthusiastically change your
identity, and the subway is the perfect mode to transport you
from the mundane to the spellbinding. You may dream of going
out in public dressed as a Pharaoh, a seductive witch, an axe
murderer or a mermaid. Halloween is New York in its most
heightened state of quirky ingenuity. With his edgy, uncanny
portraits, the photographer aims to pay tribute to the outbursts of
creativity during this exuberant, spooky holiday in the iconic
New York subway.