Subway yearbook photos from Improv Everywhere

The Subway Yearbook project is the latest bit of fun from the joy-sharing pranksters at Improv Everywhere:

[W]e installed a photography studio on a random subway car. We claimed that the MTA had hired us to take photos of every single person who rides the subway and that we'd be producing a yearbook at the end of the year. Most people were happy to pose for us, and the resulting photos show just how diverse New York subway riders can be.

Previously:

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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jaytkay

Their High Five Escalator stunt made me cry for its earnest fun.
jaytkay

#2 posted by Anonymous, September 22, 2009 4:24 PM

It’s a lot like what I do every weekend.
http://freephotoproject.tumblr.com/

Beautiful work, Iain. I like it a lot.
Jonathan Badger

@5 Anonymous

I used to live in DC and ride the metro, and I wore jeans or shorts or whatever the hell I wanted. And I have a doctorate. What the hell sort of job *cares* what you wear these days?
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  I work in a corner of my bedroom. You can imagine what I’m wearing.
Ernunnos

That’s not just art, that’s a good deed.
m2key

^
Pink tutu and bunny slippers? nothing but body paint? pieces of beach towels super-glued inappropriately? old tv dinner trays and rubber bands? gucci pjs?
Anonymous

It’s a lot like what I do every weekend.
http://freephotoproject.tumblr.com/
sirdook

Ah, lying – is there anything you can’t do?
wrybread

Whew, that was close. When I saw there were only 2 comments on this beautiful, hilarious, and good natured prank (obviously imho) I was worried some sad sack hadn’t put them down for fucking with people. Thank you Sirdook for not disappointing me.
xaxa

Lack of suits: perhaps because the photos were taken at 3:30pm. I bet there’d be more suits just before 9am, or just after 6pm. But there’d be no room for the camera.
Anonymous

As someone who rides the DC Metro everyday, I’m surprised at how different this is than my subway crowd. Does no one in New York City work? Or does everybody have a “cool” job where you go in in jeans every day?
maxoid

Are they going to follow through on the yearbook thing? ‘Cause that would be pretty neat.
Anonymous

Great project. They should at least make it available on Lulu or something similar.
dfiliak

I think everybody goes through a phase of taking photos of people on the subway. Here are mine… http://picasaweb.google.com/dfiliak/NYCSubwayPeople#
Anonymous

@5: Some people here do have cool jobs, some have to go from place to place during the day, students, tourists, nannies, delivery people, and a lot of working class people with long hours and also weird hours. The Q train has always been packed with working class people at midnight whenever I take it from Manhattan to Brooklyn during the week. (Yes, that was the 6 train in the video, I’m just using the Q as an example of the diversity of people and the hours they keep in this crazy city that I live in.)
cosmicautumn

I bet people would have done it even without the yearbook angle. It would be cool if they actually printed something up, maybe with a page for each train.

@5: Some of us here do nothing but apply for jobs, which sadly requires so special clothing effort.