Right after Memorial Day I was asked to report to the New York County Court building for grand jury duty and was selected for a four-week term! The court happens to be right in Chinatown, which makes it fairly easy to get to and provides good lunch options. As I got an hour for lunch most days, I decided to take along my camera.
Among the local sights are Columbus Park, where there are always Chinese grandpas and grandmas playing checkers and cards. We also happened to be next to the Federal courthouse, where the circus of the P. Diddy trial was going on. It’s bustling yet calm, urban yet full of nature. There’s rarely a shortage of things to photograph.
I’ve never spent this much time taking photos in the same place at roughly the same hour I have to say I was inspired by The Traveling Photographer’s Manifesto: A Guide to Connecting with People and Place, a book I read on Kindle, which is part guide to working practices and part introduction to the author’s photo tours in Vietnam. In the book, he follows the same route each day, getting to know the daily patterns of the neighborhood and meeting some of its residents. I decided to try my hand at the same.
Here are my favorite photos of lunchtime in Chinatown, sorted for simplicity by date, starting on May 29 and ending on June 18, 2025:
Hops Trains and Backpacks 
Leave a comment