My Favorite Areas in NYC for Street Photography
I’m very fortunate that my family decided to emigrate so close to one of the best cities in the world for street photography (of course, they had no clue how much that decision would shape my path twenty years later, but I’m grateful nonetheless). Anyways, I never really cared for New York City for most of my life — not until I picked up a camera in 2018 and learned about street photography a few years later. Since then, it has become the backdrop for about 90% of my work every year. Although I still have so much of the city to explore and photograph, and even though I try to see new areas occasionally, I often keep coming back to some of the same places over and over again that continue to give me opportunities to make good work.
Here are some of those places.
Staten Island Ferry
If you’ve been following my work over the past few years, this first one should come at no surprise. The ferry is one of those things I gravitate towards whenever I don’t really feel motivated or have no idea where I want to shoot. The best part is that it’s free. You can take it as many times as you want, whenever you want.
The ferry departs from Whitehall Terminal in the Financial District of Manhattan and sails over to St. George Terminal in Staten Island. It runs 24/7, it is about a 25-minute ride each way, and ferries depart within 15-30 minutes of each other depending on the time of day.
Personally, I like taking the ferry on really sunny and clear days, usually about 1-2 hours before sunset to get the best light before it drops behind the skyline. However, I do think this is one of those places where you can get nice photos at any time of day, in any conditions. I’ve taken trips at night, on cloudy days, and even in the rain, and I always seem to come away with at least one photo I like.
This is also somewhat of an “easy” place to photograph because you can kind of blend in and look like a tourist. Since it is a commuter ferry, you’ll often see people traveling home to Staten Island after a work day (usually between 4-6pm on a weekday) and they will typically sit inside the cabin since they’ve probably seen the same skyline view hundreds of times. On the outside decks is where you’ll find a lot of tourists taking photos and taking in the views.
I typically like to make a loop around each level of the ferry (there are 3) but I’d say I spend most of my time on the outdoor decks. If I find a good composition and the light is hitting it nicely, I’ll wait there to see if any people walk by and I’ll try to frame them within the scene. 35mm is probably my favorite focal length to shoot here but I definitely think this is a place you’ll want a versatile zoom lens.
If you find yourself on a trip to New York, put this at the top of your list.
Domino Park/Williamsburg
If I’m going over to Brooklyn, there’s a good chance I’m somewhere in/around Williamsburg. Now Williamsburg is pretty big, but lately I’ve been really enjoying the area near Domino Park. A bit north of the park, you’ll find a few piers which are great to photograph at golden hour where you’ll get some long shadows of people enjoying the Manhattan skyline view. From those piers, you can also jump on the East River Ferry.
Domino Park itself is a great place to end a summer day, and I even got to shoot around there during a snow day this past year. If you walk away from the water and deeper into Williamsburg, you’ll likely see the many Hasidic Jewish people who live in the area, especially around the Marcy Ave subway stop and South Williamsburg. They don’t necessarily love to be photographed, but as long as you’re respectful, it’s a really interesting place where I’ve gotten some of my favorite shots over the years.
Shooting on the subway platforms of the M/J/Z lines can give you some great views of the Williamsburg Bridge and also down onto the streets below you, so if you take the subway from Manhattan into Williamsburg, spend some time on the platform before making your way down onto the street.
Chinatown
I feel like this one would end up being on every street photographer’s list.
There’s a few different Chinatown areas around NYC, but the one I’m referring to is the one in lower Manhattan. When I was starting out photography, this was my comfort area to shoot in and to this day, it still kind of is. To me, the two things that stand out about it is the grittiness and the people. I think this is also another one of those places you can photograph at any time of the day in any weather conditions.
I’ve walked every street you would consider to be part of Chinatown, but my favorite area would be the streets underneath the Manhattan Bridge (East Broadway, Division, Henry, Madison). Tucked under the Manhattan Bridge by Forsyth Plaza, you’ll also find a market where people sell a bunch of different things, including fruit, vintage watches, and more. Chinatown is also the entrance to the Manhattan Bridge, where you can take the pedestrian path and find the very popular viewpoint overlooking East Broadway.
If you find yourself in New York in the month of February, make sure to stop by Chinatown to photograph the celebrations and parades of Lunar New Year.
Chinatown also has some of the more affordable food you’ll find in the city, making it a bit easier on the wallet (make sure you bring cash).
Midtown
Alright so…Midtown is pretty big. But for this blog, I’m just going specify it as the area between the bottom of Central Park (59th St) and Penn Station (31 St). There is some gray area, so don’t take these markers too literally. I digress.
In Midtown, you’ll most of the main tourist attractions that NYC has to offer. From the Empire State Building, to Times Square, to Radio City Music Hall, there is no shortage of places and characters here to photograph. For a long time, I would try to avoid shooting in Midtown because it felt “too easy” and “cliche" but as I’ve matured, I’ve realized that some of my favorite photos have come from this area of Manhattan.
Midtown is one of the better areas for night photography due to the abundance of light, especially around Times Square and Radio City Music Hall. All the attractions also make it the busiest area of the city, especially around the holidays. The chaos can be fun to shoot, but it can also get overwhelming. Besides Chinatown, I’ve probably photographed Midtown the most, but it’s a bit easy for me considering my train enters/leaves the city at Penn Station.
Financial District
Lastly, FiDi has seen a lot of me over the past few years. It’s at the very bottom of Manhattan, and if you’re looking for people in business attire, this is one of the places to be.
This is a great area to shoot in harsh light because you have some really tall buildings and narrow streets. It’s a smaller area than Midtown, but I love shooting here when I’m looking for some more clean/minimal frames. If you’re here in the summer between the hours of 4-6pm, you can catch some of the business-people leaving work which can make for great subjects. In the winter, these streets can feel a bit grim and moody, but that has a certain charm to it. From here, you can easily hop on the Staten Island Ferry.
If you’re lucky, you can also find some steam vents because there are quite a bit of subway lines that run beneath this area.
I could continue to list a lot of other places, but I’d say these are some of the areas I feel I’ve made some of my best work. Some honorable mentions would include Central Park, Lower East Side, and the Upper East + West Sides. There are so many interesting areas to photograph in this massive city and a lot left for me to explore, but hopefully this blog gave you a better visual representation of the areas and the photos you could get there.
