Subway-Color-Archive: Forming Palettes + Compositing
May 2024
It is getting hot in the city! We are in for a scorching summer. I am only two days late on this bulletin (not so bad), so this is a good excuse to say Happy Pride Month, though every day of the year deserves more consistent and genuine pride. I very much hope for a future where people can live openly and safely regardless of location and gender identity… this is a long way off, but not without hope. Until then, in the words of RuPaul, [supermodel] “You better work it, girl.” On this sentiment and considering the March/April bulletin was loaded (it covered a more extended period), I aim to keep this concise and focused on the work of the past three weeks, including paint chip dissection, compositing found/available images to compose station-specific column palettes, and progressed 8th Avenue IND print mailer (Free) + final column reference/print content.
Sources and Workspace
Cutting the collected paint chips is straightforward; if not, this can be elaborated further in the next bulletin (let me know). My tools are an Exacto blade to help break down the color strata and tweezers to arrange the fragments. Each broken-up chip is photographed in a lightbox for consistency; the same camera is used for each. In my résistance to Adobe, I have been transferring these photos to and working in Miro. This platform also has its pitfalls and quirks; today, I found immense frustration in exporting Miro frames to PDF; it does not like even slightly heavy files. Conversely, I find Miro a powerful tool to arrange and link to found research material such as news clippings, photos, drawings, reference text, etc. The following is a snapshot of what my board looked like recently:
I will not zoom in to avoid getting into image rights. However, for context, the lines of photos are pulled from many sources and arranged by year (whenever possible). These sources include nycsubway.org, urbanarchive.org (NY Transit Museum, NY Historical Society, sometimes NYPL), rarely the national archives, timesmachine.nytimes.com, commons.wikimedia.org, and collections.mcny.org.
I shift to videos when I have exhausted what those digital collections offer. Videos are sparse and often non-specific in describing the exact locations depicted. I rely on the art-deco-inspired tiles and train identifiers of the 8th Avenue IND line to help me confirm a location. There is more documentation of the IRT line; it feels slightly like the star child. Watching the Netflix show “Eric” with Benedict Cumberbatch, I caught a few scenes featuring some IRT platforms. Not particularly helpful for this study, but I did appreciate the attention to signage! This is not to say that what I have found is insufficient. One of the most incredible finds of this project so far is the YouTube account NYCSubwaySystem, a person(s) who documented every subway station from 1996–7. According to the description in “A moment at every NYC Subway Station in 1996–97” by Trainluvr, a supercut of NYCSubwaySystem’s documentation:
“[there are] 422 videos — one for each subway station in Winter 1997 — [these]were uploaded anonymously in 2012 (not by me). To see them all in a single movie takes 14 Hours (made but not up-loadable). Made with an early digital camera or cell phone…
Also visible in stations are the old token only high wheels (aka iron maidens) replaced gradually until the token was withdrawn as a fare payment option in 2003. HEETs (High Entry/Exit Turnstiles) replaced most high wheel’s. Many part time and some full time change (token) booths manned by a Railroad Agent also have since been removed.
Much wall mounted advertising has since unfortunately returned to the system after it was standardized / de-cluttered (black frames carefully positioned according to uniform placement standards) in the late 1980s ordered by David L. Gunn, TA President. It remained that way into the 2000s. Finally, and perhaps most importantly seen here is a surprising amount of surviving incandescent lighting, in many mezzanines and some of the last remaining of the original lighting under el platform canopies. Note the absence of bubble cameras, wireless antennas, illuminated wall posters, truncated dome (yellow) platform edges, help points and new elevators. Present are Off Hour Waiting Areas, ordered removed by Andy Byford around 2018. Many of the legacy post WW2 OTIS escalators with blue or green colored baked enamel sides are seen near end of life, all replaced later with bare stainless steel sided units.
The video maker had a simple idea and followed it through to completion. Was he a train buff, or TA intern doing an assigned project? This was made before the July 1997 start of unlimited ride MetroCards, so a non-employee would pay several fares on each multi-station shooting day. Regardless, the product is a valuable compendium of images of the great transit system and adjacent streets in a raw yet organized and comprehensive form.” — Trainluvr
I cannot quite articulate how incredible this documentation is, so I’ll share this link to 14th Street here so you can explore it! Likewise, I found immense awe in a 3D project I stumbled upon the other day on BVEStation by BadriveR142A.
“I am a NYC Subway fan since I was a kid, after I discovered OpenBVE then downloaded old SMEEs trains, and started to learn the 1970s NYC subway system, I decided to develop 1970s routes by myself since I knew nobody will make some even though there is the 1969 Franklin Shuttle. I don’t use sketchup at all, I only use Paint.net for textures, I learned modeling fast by fixing objects and understanding B3D and CSV coding. Yes, I learned a lot in less than a year and already know route building basics, some people learn slowly, some learn fast.” — BadriveR142A (2018). A later post notes that they had never been to New York. So interesting! I hope they have had a chance since to come over and see the real thing.
They, too, were using the www.nycsubway.org photo archive so I could identify the media from which the model references. There are some inconsistencies, but not to their fault. This is precisely what the Subway-Color-Archive is about: identifying and, at times, reconstructing those gaps through artifact (paint chip) collection and analysis.
Palettes
All of this collecting, both visual and text, composites to an 8.5x11 S-C-A IND Column reference sheet:
These palettes are in progress or finished (with the potential of revision in the next two months/ pre-print distribution phase). Many things may instigate a change in column colors. I have lined documented events and commentary with the unrolled paint chip colors. The thickness of color strata does not always define the amount of time a color is present. Still, it can help determine color longevity when media documentation (in addition to history-based text context) is limited.
As these timelines form, they help define the size/volume of a color in the 1932–3 to 2023–4 container.¹ While the historical notes and text-based content are interesting, explicit descriptions are not always necessary and can distract visually. Therefore, the bottom of the sheet has the column palette sans excess information, which can appear when needed. This week, I started looking at some of these stripped-down palettes populated:
Above is a peek into what you should be able to expect from the 8th Avenue mailer-+. As mentioned in the previous bulletin, there will be a few manifestations of this chromatic information, some with more text information, others primarily visual. Refrain from expecting palettes to look the way they do above. Final graphics will retain the study’s objective but will be in the hands of a creative mind outside of my own…more soon :)! I can’t wait to see how these color timelines will evolve in the months ahead.
In the meantime, as I prep content for the final 8th Ave. column study, now would be a fantastic and ideal time to submit a subway memory (which can be a comment, a photo, a question, truly whatever you wish). Just no di*k pics or non-project things I don’t need! Forward your next subway photo to @marzcargo on Instagram or subway-color-archive.com. I see you posting cool things on your accounts, but I can’t use them unless you let me :)
Note: this IND 8th Ave. study ends in September. I have four more bulletins planned (in my head), and who knows after… so if these updates make you happy, let me know! I will write for as long as this feels useful and necessary.
The 2023–24 route is supported by the 2023 Architecture + Design Independent Projects program, a grant partnership of the New York State Council on the Arts and The Architectural League of New York. Independent Project grants are made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State legislature.
This project is not monitored by or affiliated with the MTA.
A study of 8th Avenue will hopefully build the framework for future chroma investigations that branch into other boroughs and neighborhoods — pending additional funding.
Questions, comments, thoughts? Please send them to subway.color.archive@gmail.com
¹ The 8th Ave. IND line opened from 1932–33. The Subway-Color-Archive paint samples have been pulled from stations between 2023–24 (~92 years!)
