At the recent ICP Photo Book Festival, I happened upon Halloween Underground: New York Subway Portraits by Seymour Licht. The book whispered to me and begged to be picked up. After a few short pages, I eventually looked at it the way a sugar addict stares at a frosted cupcake instead of a frosted pop-tart. In that way, Halloween Underground: New York Subway Portraits isn’t a trick — it’s quite a treat and filled with deliciousness. If you’re a fan of Halloween, film photography, the New York City subway, costumes, and photo books; then this is the one to consider.
First off, the book is printed in such a way to give more advantage to the landscape-oriented images at play here. That’s to say that the book is wider than it is taller. In photo book language, that translates to a very cinematic experience.
Seymour has ensured that the print quality is second to none. The paper is unique and perhaps one of the most intriguing I’ve felt. I describe it as smoother than most others yet at the same time, it’s both slightly matte and slightly sheen. Combined with the subject matter and the softness in the images, I get the feeling of beauty throughout everything he put in the book. That beauty is balanced by campy spookiness and the grit of NYC’s subways. It all mixes together into the Jack-O-Lantern to give something for everyone. I’m seriously in love with it; and this is a subtle and brilliant book that doesn’t need to be a peacock because it’s sure and confident in its own presentation.
Because of the paper type, you can look at it almost anywhere without having much of an issue with reflections and gloss. I totally understand how every photographer wouldn’t want to make their photo books on this paper, but they should at least consider it.
The images have humor, mysteriousness, and motion. It’s inherently part of of what makes these images so beautiful. The images aren’t so clinical, and I love that. Then in the back of the book, you read that Seymour used a Contax T2. Then you start to understand more of why the images are so fun, cool, and look this way. The film nerd inside of me can’t help but wonder how the images would’ve looked if they were shot on CineStill with its halation effect. But at the same time, I don’t need to know.
Very, very few images are split down the middle fold. And that’s fine because when they are split, it’s not at pivotal parts of the image. Because of this, the photos can still be easily enjoyed.
Halloween Underground: New York Subway Portraits can be bought for $45 on Amazon. We strongly recommend that you check it out.