Seymour Licht – Halloween Underground: New York Subway Portraits

Review by Paul Anderson •

What better place to look for spooks and monsters than in the dark underground tunnels of the New York subway system? If you are a ghostly inhabitant of that world, what better time to reveal yourself than on Halloween night? Indeed, if you are a photographer seeking glimpses of the supernatural, you might do as Seymour Licht has done and wander these tunnels, camera in hand, and see what you can see.

This photobook is a collection of Halloween portraits taken on Halloween night for over 20 years. The venue is the New York subway system, and the photographer rode for hours looking for his ghoulish subjects. There is an interesting tension in these images, created by the presence of costumed figures intermingled with everyday commuters. The photographer, in his closing notes, described this as the “… clash of the mundane with the fantastical.”

Licht nicely isolates his subjects within the frame, accomplishing this through compositional techniques and by virtue of colorful costumes that serve to separate his subjects from their environment. Clever choice of background provides important context, be that of an underground passageway, a subway platform, or a train door framing a costumed figure. Licht notes that his subjects, having gone through all of the trouble to create these costumes, were generally cooperative and more than happy to show off for the camera.

These portraits can be subtle, clever, or downright scary. As for subtle, there is the portrait of a man in a formal suit and bowler hat holding an empty picture frame and a green apple on a stick, presumably imitating the famous “Son of Man” painting by Renè Magritte. For clever, there is the composition of a frog prince and his princess – the Frog Prince is immediately apparent and dominates the image, but the presence of the seated princess is only hinted at by a gowned knee and a wand peeking in from left. As for scary, there is the evil looking bride posing with a very frightening nun.

Throughout the book there are clever juxtapositions that add humor. In one image, a malicious-looking clown peers down from the top of a long empty stairway, while on a riser below are the remnants of an “If you see something, say something” sign. In another, a person in a nun costume (who looks distinctly uncomfortable) sits below a poster advertising “Very comfortable sheets, towels, quilts, robes, and most anything soft and wonderful.”

Licht’s book is well designed and printed; contains 79 photographs, two poems, and a set of notes. Halloween will be coming up sooner than you think, and this might be a good gift for that photographer friend who is also a Halloween enthusiast.

For those interested in similar work, subway-themed photography has been featured in three prior reviews in the PhotoBook Journal. The first book is After Dark by Liam Wong, which emphasized quiet and solitude in nocturnal urban spaces including subways and train stations. Liam Wong’s images provide an interesting contrast to the spooky theatrical settings of Licht’s work.

The second book is First Stop Last Stop by photographer Rita Nannini, who concentrated on the more quotidian aspects of the New York subway system. She focused on the terminals and endpoints of each subway line.

The third subway-themed book is Subwaygram by Chris Maliwat. He focused on the humorous and colorful personalities who ride the subway. Although Maliwat’s subjects are not in full Halloween regalia, many are also masked, wearing face coverings from the pandemic era.

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

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Halloween Underground – Seymour Licht

Photographer: Seymour Licht (born in Germany, currently resides in Manhattan, New York)

Background notes by Seymour Licht. Poems by Oscar Wilde and Persephone James

Language: English

Design: Alan Barnett, Seymour Licht

Editor: Renée Silverman

Distributor (Europe): VVB Laufersweiler Verlag

Hardcover, 11 x 9 inches, 109 pages, 79 photographs; ISBN 979821819918

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