My initial assumption on seeing these was that "getting caught off-guard by an unknown photographer when I was hurrying to get somewhere, too" might explain the looks.

But the photographer swears he made a point of trying to avoid that: At the moment that the subjects passed through the turnstile, unknown to them, I took their picture stationed at a distance of eleven feet. I stood there turning pages of a magazine observing subjects out of the corner of my eye, waiting for only the moment when they pushed the turnstile bar to release the shutter.

Most of the people are looking straight into the camera, so it seems that the photographer was not as unknown as he thought he was.

They had every reason to be suspicious of someone invading their privacy in such an underhand way and perhaps their faces reflect this. I think it shows the great tolerance of New Yorkers that he didn't get a poke in the eye.


DC