Last Stop

Over the course of a year, Bri­an Rose set out to pho­to­graph all the neigh­bour­hoods at the ends of the sub­way lines in New York City. He had mul­ti­ple rea­sons for engag­ing in such a project, but the strongest was the desire to por­tray New York as a high­ly diverse, mul­ti-cen­tred metrop­o­lis. Hav­ing spent a major part of his career pho­tograph­ing the city through often chal­leng­ing times – the dichoto­my of destruc­tion and cre­ativ­i­ty of the 1980s, the mor­tal wound­ing of ⁹⁄₁₁, and the sus­pend­ed ani­ma­tion of the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic – Rose was per­haps unique­ly equipped to doc­u­ment the city at this moment of polit­i­cal uncer­tain­ty under the increased strain of new arrivals, many of whom are refugees from around the world. For a new gen­er­a­tion of New York­ers, the trains roll on cease­less­ly, and despite the title, Last Stop is not so much about end­ings as it is about the city’s reinvention.

Bri­an Rose stud­ied at Coop­er Union with pho­tog­ra­phers Joel Meyerowitz and Lar­ry Fink. He has pub­lished numer­ous books that explore urban themes, includ­ing The Lost Bor­der, The Land­scape of the Iron Cur­tain (2004), Atlantic City (2019) and Mon­u­ment Avenue (2022). He is one of the lead­ing chron­i­clers of New York City, and his pho­tographs are held in the col­lec­tions of the Muse­um of Mod­ern Art and the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Muse­um of Art.