Series D.VI. Subway Life, 1980s-2017, inclusive

The series includes photographs primarily of people as passengers in the context of the New York City train transit system, which includes both underground and elevated stations and tracks. These images include people within the train cars and on station platforms. There are also many photos not centered on people, including images of signage, turnstiles, train exteriors, ticket booths, and other infrastructure.

Generally, the series holds images taken from within the transit system, not from outside it. Accordingly, most of the images are interior views, with few street level views. Street level views of stations and the like can more commonly be found in Series D.II and D.III (Buildings, Parks, Cityscapes). In the container list below, "interior" refers to images taken inside of train coaches; "station" refers to both platforms and to areas of the station and network of connecting tunnels leading to the platforms; and "passengers" refers to people anywhere in the system.

The general concept of the series was defined by Steve Harmon and he often, but not always, identified photographs that he considered part of it. Photographs not so identified by Harmon but clearly consistent with the theme were included by the processing archivist.