Craig Bagno

My life seemed to have come apart in 2008. I was sad and depressed and stuck within myself. I was in the Strand bookstore in the Village feeling a mess one autumn day when I came across this beautiful book of NYC photography. I was inspired. I bought a film camera. Then more cameras. Then a lot more. (A Hasselblad 501cm; Roleiflex TLRs and the crazy Rollei 35; a Leica M3 with the shoe mounted exposure meter; a cult object Yashica T4 and the amazing Electro 35; a fancy Contax T2; a workhorse Nikon FM2 and all those good Nikkor lenses; Agfa folders like the Isolette; a delightfully weird Olympus Pen half frame from the '60's; a Polaroid 110A conversion; paperweight heavy Russian rangefinders; and then later a concession to digital with the Fuji X100 and X-Pro1 and X-T2; and etc. and etc.) Before I knew it, I was carrying a camera everywhere. And looking for beauty everywhere. It was a marvelous trick. I've since taken about a quarter of a million photos. It changed my life. A whole lot of them are on the Bagnostian blog online. But the ones I'm most proud of are in this book and I hope they tell at least one version of a New York City story. Mine. Yours. Or maybe really anyone's.