{"id":156266,"date":"2026-03-07T16:29:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T16:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/156266\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T16:29:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T16:29:21","slug":"elephants-porn-theaters-and-hunky-firefighters-four-decades-of-new-york-hidden-in-port-authority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/156266\/","title":{"rendered":"Elephants, Porn Theaters and Hunky Firefighters \u2014 Four Decades of New York Hidden in Port Authority"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The buses rumble overhead. The ceiling shivers. Somewhere above, a departure board flips and a suitcase wheel chatters across tile. And in the middle of the Port Authority Bus Terminal \u2014 one of the least likely art spaces in New York \u2014 Alan Batt is standing inside his life\u2019s work.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" width=\"1250\" height=\"938\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Battman-Port-Authority-5815.jpeg\" alt=\"Alan Batt exhibition Port Authority\" class=\"wp-image-132751\"\/>Alan Batt \u2014 known as \u201cBattman\u201d \u2014 is at Port Authority Bus Terminal from 3-6pm each day showing his work. Photo: Phil O\u2019Brien<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is 43 years of my work,\u201d he says, sweeping an arm across the space. \u201cIt\u2019s weird. This is my life in one room.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Success! Your account was created and you\u2019re signed in.<br \/>Please visit <a href=\"https:\/\/w42st.com\/my-account\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">My Account<\/a> to verify and manage your account.<\/p>\n<p>An account was already registered with this email. Please check your inbox for an authentication link.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/w42st.com\/post\/author\/phil\/\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<img alt=\"Phil O'Brien Portrait\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/cropped-Phil-OBrien-Portrait-WB-scaled-1-80x80.jpg\"  class=\"avatar avatar-80 photo\" height=\"80\" width=\"80\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\/>\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publisher &amp; Editor Phil O\u2019Brien is an entrepreneur and journalist. As an international photojournalist, he photographed Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Princess Diana and many others. He built a successful international sports photography agency, EMPICS, that was Getty Images\u2019 major competitor in Europe when it sold. He founded a children\u2019s charity in the UK that has helped young people through sport for over 15 years. Phil has lived in New York since 2012. He founded W42ST in 2014.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a class=\"author-link\" href=\"https:\/\/w42st.com\/post\/author\/phil\/\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\tMore by Phil O&#8217;Brien\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The buses rumble overhead. The ceiling shivers. Somewhere above, a departure board flips and a suitcase wheel chatters&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,5406,3419],"class_list":{"0":"post-156266","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-headlines","10":"tag-new-york-news","11":"tag-nostalgia","12":"tag-photography"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}