Many Fieldston students spend their summers hours away from home, making long drives to rustic sleepaway camps in Maine or New Hampshire. This year, I decided to spend my precious summer weeks in my very own city.
My summer program at the School of the New York Times took place at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus in New York City. The other students and I had lots of free time to explore the city as much as we pleased. Most of my classmates were not locals, so I felt a responsibility to navigate and keep everyone safe. They all wanted to see the classic tourist attractions, so we traveled around the city quickly, stopping at every museum and park we encountered along the way.
When we walked through crowded areas, I encouraged my peers to try not to look like tourists for fear of being pickpocketed, or worse, handed a flyer. Still, they were adamant about stopping at any landmark or pretty view we passed. They squinted while holding up their phones and digital cameras, trying to get the perfect shot for the programwide photojournalism challenge that promised the grand prize of being featured in the New York Times.
At first, the constant picture-taking was an annoyance. I didn’t see what was so special about the billboards in Times Square or the Empire State Building. They were iconic symbols of New York City, of course, but life as a New Yorker meant I had seen them a million times already.
When my friends showed me the photos however, my perspective shifted. The images they took not only captured beautiful views and famous sights but also the sense of curiosity and wonder that came with visiting New York for the first time. Looking at them made me feel like a tourist in my own city; I began to understand the awe that everyone around me experienced.
The winning shot in the photojournalism challenge was a photo of skyscrapers. It had been taken from a low angle so that the buildings seemed to stretch endlessly into the sky. This feeling of infiniteness perfectly captured my revelations from spending time with tourists. Though I have lived in New York City my whole life, I will never know it in its completeness. I could walk every street in the five boroughs and still miss out on countless experiences, memories and people to meet. More than anything else, this summer served as a reminder that there is always something new to appreciate when looking through someone else’s lens.
