Chris Maliwat – Subwaygram – PhotoBook Journal

Review by Paul Anderson •

Between 2014 and 2022, photographer Chris Maliwat rode the rails of the New York City subway system with his camera, skillfully capturing its quirky and colorful passengers. He began photographing during pre-COVID days and continued through the height of the pandemic. A selection of these images is assembled in his 2022 photo book Subwaygram.

The first 42 images in the book are pre-pandemic, and 32 pandemic-era images are presented second. The two sections are separated by an orange-colored page. Masks become the main feature of the second section, showing how normalized mask wearing has become. With virtually everyone in a mask, the viewer’s attention is drawn to the eyes, and it is really nothing short of astonishing to see how much we can read from them.

We humans place a great deal of cultural importance on self-expression, specifically on the wide variety of ways we present ourselves in public spaces. The various mechanisms we use can be seen in these photographs: clothing, tattoos, kitty earmuffs, phone case covers, face make-up, hair styles, hair coloring, hats, sunglasses, and, of course, personalized pandemic masks.

The use of color photography is crucial in showing how important color can be in self-expression – an excellent example being the image of a young woman watching something on her smart phone (the image is titled #movie). She is arrayed in a blue jacket, blue shoes, and bright blue hair. She has carefully color coordinated her clothing, accessories, hair color and nail polish to astonishing effect, surrounded as she is by much more mundanely dressed men.

Comedy and/or tragedy are present in these images, creating great entertainment. For example, on the tragic side there is the image of a dozing young man wearing a “Stop Killing Us” mask (titled #StopKillingUs), recalling the time of civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Tragedy and comedy merge in the image of a woman who is staring in disbelief at her smart phone, wrapped with the image of a tiger. The tiger is exactly mirroring her very own expression (titled #tigereyes). Although this image was taken six months before the outbreak of COVID-19, one could easily imagine her doom scrolling through some early pandemic news. On the comic end of the scale, there is the image of a young man with his mask pulled completely up over his eyes, apparently trying to avoid whatever his traveling companion is attempting to share with him (titled #seenoevil). Maybe he too is tired of doom scrolling?

There is a lot of staring into the middle distance among these passengers, a common feature of mass transit culture. Eye contact with strangers is to be avoided. Instead, passengers read advertising signs, take a nap, engage in conversation with a trusted traveling partner, or stare at their phone – and these mobile phones are everywhere! There is scarcely a person who does not have their smart device out in the open and ready to hand, available as needed to relieve the tedium of the ride. Like masks, it is interesting to see how ubiquitous the presence of mobile phones has become.

The book itself is simple and well designed. Some images are presented full bleed and others have margins. The pacing of the images is pleasant, and image size is appropriate. At the back of the book there are four pages of image thumbnails (think of this as a plate list) that provide hashtag titles for all the photographs, as well as the date of capture.

This is a book of subway-specific street photography that explores the public persona of New Yorkers before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. It can be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in street photography.

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Paul Anderson is a photographer/digital artist, working in Hermosa Beach, CA

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Subwaygram – Chris Maliwat

Photographer: Chris Maliwat, born in Independence, Missouri; currently resides in Brooklyn, New York (IG @subwaygram)

Essay: Aaron Morrison

Text: English

Hardcover (Flexibound), 8 x 8 inches, 128 pages, 74 photographs, Printed by Ofset Yapimevi, Turkey, ISBN-13: 978-195411915412-8

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