Life on the Subway by Fabio Giavara

Everyday I have to take the subway to go to work. During the travel period (approximately one hour), I have the opportunity to watch people who spend their time on the underground. Thousands of people, many differences between them: workers, students, children, elderly, girls, guys, policemen, homeless… any of them with their own approach, style or attitude, passing their time on the subway.

Sometimes for only a few seconds, and sometimes even for several minutes, we are obliged to wait for the arrival of the metro that brings us to the destination. Some wait, sitting, or some continue to walk back and forth to the quay. There is the person who is completely absorbed in his own thoughts; someone who reads a book or listens to music. Someone while waiting, is smoking a cigarette (even if it is forbidden). I am always intrigued by the attitude of the people. I like to take their expressions or their motion or their poses while waiting, with my iPhone. Of course I always do this secretly… it would be too embarrassing to explain the reason even though, I believe, maybe I just need a smile to remove any angry expression from the people who have been captured.

Some of them… so beautiful! I do not deny, I am sensitive to feminine beauty… Every day I cross beautiful women on the subway. I am always at the right distance but I like to think that by taking their portrait, capturing their image and editing with my smartphone, they can become part of my little magic world of mobile photography. Blondes, redheads, brunettes, skinny, tall, buxom, cheerful, sad, sentimental, fascinating, bewitching, provocative, grumpy… whatever their style or attitude, they are all to be portrayed.

They also are huge readers… … my daily one-hour journey to get to work allows me to sit comfortably and read a lot. There are so many people doing the same as me. Reading the email from their smartphones; the online newspapers on their tablet, paper books, or e-books on their readers. Many of them seem completely absorbed; some casual, others seem to be having fun. But perhaps, it highlights the fact that we are all lonely and instead of chatting together we isolate ourselves in our readings.