New York City subways – the century-old transit system has survived two World Wars, the Great Depression, and Hurricane Sandy. It and the millions of citizens that rely on it as their daily lifeline will also survive the COVID-19 pandemic.

Subwaygram captures mobile phone street portraits of the diverse community of riders two years before and two years after the first COVID case was confirmed in New York City.

Complete strangers find a common place in the subway. Wall Street executives, Brooklyn millennials, and newly arrived immigrants, from all different boroughs, collide on crowded platforms and share an intimate space underground in a way that doesn’t happen above ground.

Despite its failures, complete strangers find a common place in the subway. Commuters settle into reverie—a liminal space between both physical locations and mental states—revealing commonalities in fleeting moments that are worth preserving.