{"id":284548,"date":"2026-07-02T04:25:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T04:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/284548\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T04:25:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T04:25:23","slug":"photographer-william-meyers-documents-25-years-of-nyc-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/284548\/","title":{"rendered":"Photographer William Meyers documents 25 years of NYC life"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York City has always been a city for photographers. From Garry Winogrand, to Gordon Parks, to Saul Leiter, to Leonard Freed, the streets of the city have always been fodder for those who take the time to really look at what is going on around them. And politics, social issues, and civil life have always been a part of it.<\/p>\n

Photographer William Meyers has followed in this tradition in his new book \u201cCivics<\/a>\u201d as he works to capture in New York City the everyday acts of civic engagement, public service, and neighborly support that sustain the democratic fabric of not just the city, but the nation as a whole.<\/p>\n

The book is structured around seven thematic chapters: \u201cElections,\u201d \u201cGovernance,\u201d \u201cDemonstrations,\u201d \u201cPress,\u201d \u201cTalk,\u201d \u201cSocial Capital,\u201d and \u201cCivic Markers.\u201d The photographs capture the full spectrum of engagement, from formal political processes and public service to volunteer work, protests, charitable acts, and neighborhood interactions, revealing the quiet, everyday labor that keeps democracy alive.<\/p>\n

Meyers\u2019 interest in civic engagement goes back decades. It began in 1953 when he was in the 9th grade at Classical High School in Providence, Rhode Island. <\/p>\n

\u201cAncient History was one of the courses, and when we got to studying the Greek poleis,\u00a0I\u00a0fell in love. I\u2019ve had a lifelong interest in classical Greek culture and history and, from that, in city governance,\u201d Meyers recounted during an interview via email. \u201cI\u00a0had experiences dealing with government and read much in urbanology. \u2018Civics\u2019 is my attempt to\u00a0show\u00a0how the city runs and how the inhabitants coexist\u00a0more or less\u00a0amicably.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meyers\u2019 interest in photography began when he was 10, and he had a darkroom in the house he grew up in. He went on to be a serious amateur photographer while he was in the Navy, while he worked for the Senate in Washington D.C., and while he was in the business world. But he did not consider himself a professional until later in life.<\/p>\n

\"\"(From \u201cCivics\u201d by William Meyers, published by Apollo Publishers)\"\"Aiding an epileptic, Church Avenue subway station, Kensington, Brooklyn, December 16, 2015. (From \u201cCivics\u201d by William Meyers, published by Apollo Publishers)\"\"Statue of Liberty souvenirs, tourist shop, Times Square, September 15, 2010. (From \u201cCivics\u201d by William Meyers, published by Apollo Publishers)\"\"Fourth of July celebration, Riverside Park, 2009. (From \u201cCivics\u201d by William Meyers, published by Apollo Publishers)\"\"Homelessness, Broadway, Upper West Side, November 25, 2017. (From \u201cCivics\u201d by William Meyers, published by Apollo Publishers)\"\"Union rat, Madison Avenue, Midtown, January 26, 2011. (From \u201cCivics\u201d by William Meyers, published by Apollo Publishers)\"\"City Council hearing, City Hall, Civic Center, August 8, 2017. (From \u201cCivics\u201d by William Meyers, published by Apollo Publishers)\"\"Newsroom, New York Daily News, Financial District, March 19, 2015. (From \u201cCivics\u201d by William Meyers, published by Apollo Publishers)\"\"
\nFrank McCourt High School PTA meeting, Brandeis Campus, Upper West Side, April 10, 2013. (From \u201cCivics\u201d by William Meyers, published by Apollo Publishers)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was around 60, my friend Phil Block, the\u00a0Director of Education\u00a0at the International Center of Photography, urged me to become professionally involved in photography,\u201d Meyers recalled. \u201cBob Shamis, the curator of photography at the Museum of the City of New York, selected two pictures from my\u00a0\u2018Outer Boroughs: New York Beyond Manhattan\u2019 series to be in the MCNY\u2019s \u2018New York Now 2000\u2019 exhibition; they were\u00a0exhibited alongside\u00a0work by photographers\u00a0whose work\u00a0I admired,\u00a0and so I became a professional.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCivics\u201d has been in progress for 25 years. The photographs range over streets, neighborhoods, offices, and public spaces all over New York, offering a broad view of how citizens engage with each other and the communities that they call home. Its release, coinciding with the United States\u2019 250th anniversary, offers a timely reflection of shared civic life in the context of heightened political and social tensions. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been changes, but probably fewer here than in the rest of the country; politics in New York tends to be static,\u201d Meyers wrote to me. \u201cThe circumstances under which I had to work are what stay in mind: the bitter cold when I shot the school buses from an overpass at Co-op City; standing on a bed in Stephen Witt\u2019s basement apartment to get him at his desk; the times the gods of photography granted me a boon, like having the woman on the side of the tour bus turn up just as I was about to take my picture of Occupy Wall Street at Zuccotti Park; standing on a bench late at night to shoot a rat scurrying around the reservoir in Central Park.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shot entirely in Black and white, the photographs themselves harken back to the photographs of the Civil Rights Movement and the photo essays that were once published in magazines like \u201cLIFE\u201d and \u201cLOOK\u201d that brought a view of the wider world into American homes for decades. The fact that both ended around the time of the Watergate break-in that led to President Nixon\u2019s resignation is not lost on me when comparing them to Meyer\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

And while he stated that politics in New York has tended to be static, that is now changing. With the election of Democratic Socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani last fall, and now his three endorsed candidates sweeping the New York City Democratic Primaries on June 23, the Democratic Party in the city is shifting. This transformation is due not in a small part to events that Meyers has photographed over the last decade and a half. These kinds of changes don\u2019t happen overnight or on their own. Rather, they are the result of people making an effort to get involved in the process to bring change to fruition.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, different people see different things in the same picture; even knowledgeable viewers\u00a0see different things. Now that \u201cCivics\u201d is published, it will have to fend for itself,\u201d Meyers said. \u201cThe book is about the mechanics of government, but it is also about how ordinary citizens take part in the process, and I expect they will respond to some degree according to how they are involved. For myself, I came to see that democracy is not just a theory of government, but a culture, the way in which people habitually deal with each other and with their common problems. Done right, it is instinctive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCivics\u201d is published by Apollo Publishers, and can be purchased through their website<\/a> at apollopublishers.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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