Rita Nannini’s Decade-Long Photography Project Captures the Everyday New Yorker Throughout NYC’s Subway Stops
BRONX, NY (September 17, 2023) – Simone Development Companies announced the opening of Rita Nannini’s First Stop Last Stop: The Bronx fall exhibit at The Gallery of ARTFul Medicine, located in the lobby of Simone Development’s Hutchinson Metro Center’s Tower One at 1250 Waters Place in the Bronx. The highly-anticipated exhibition will open its doors to the public on October 9 and will run through January 5, 2024 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Ms. Nannini is a conceptual documentary photographer based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work explores different ways of viewing: motherhood in the first person, the micro landscape of the suburban backyard and the landscape as a composite of images. She has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions at the New Jersey State Museum, the Griffin Museum, Los Angeles Center for Photography, Photoville, Princeton University, Beit Hatfutsot, Israel and Konica Minolta Plaza, Tokyo, and her work has appeared in major international publications.
Based on her first book, this remarkable exhibit explores New York City’s subway system, photographing first and final stops on every single subway line. Nannini embarked on this project in 2013, focusing on the city’s diverse communities and their intricate relationship with public transit. The exhibition will cover the Bronx’s seven subway lines.
“I was not quite sure what I would discover as I traveled all 660 miles of subway tracks. Nearly 8,000 photographs and 10 years later, I am still amazed at where the subway can take me,” said Ms. Nannini. “Like the city itself, the lines are both historic and ever evolving. This is my ode to our times and The Bronx. Some stops boast special attractions or landmarks just beyond the turnstile, while other stations themselves are the attraction. I was especially drawn to the way the subway connects the disparate, lively ethnic communities which define this vast metropolis. People exhibit immense pride in their neighborhoods, their first stop on a journey to all that New York City has to offer.”
First Stop Last Stop: The Bronx explores the physical and metaphorical connections the artist discovered at the beginning/end of all seven lines which travel to the Bronx: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, B and D. Some tidbits from the book and exhibit include: There are 13 miles of beach on the Long Island Sound in Pelham Bay Park on the 6 Line. The only NFL size football field in the NYC Parks System is within steps of the Norwood station on the D Line. The Woodlawn Cemetery at the Woodlawn stop on the 4 line is the final resting place for many notables: Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Madam C.J. Walker, Celia Cruz, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Herman Melville. The New York Botanic Garden is the gem to be found a short walk from the Bedford Park Boulevard station on the B Line. On the 2 Line, in Wakefield, the Redeemer Evangelical Church was featured in the 1970 movie Love Story.
“The heartbeat of the city that is synonymous with being the melting pot of the world is the subway,” said Jodi Moise, director of the Fine Art Program and Collection at Montefiore Medicine. “There are many ways to get to the Bronx, seven subway lines to be exact. Regardless of the train you’re on, community and culture await riders at every stop on the subway when you’re in the 57 square miles that make up the Bronx.”
The Gallery of ARTFul Medicine encourages artists to interpret scientific/medical research and create works of art depicting issues of cultural, political, and technological significance. The Gallery is a key component to Montefiore’s Fine Art Program and Collection, an innovative visual arts program that fosters a life-affirming, restorative and supportive environment for patients, families, caregivers, students, faculty, and staff.
“As we unveil Rita’s exhibition, we celebrate the subway’s significance in our communities and its connection to our city’s history,” said Joe Simone, president of Simone Development Companies. “The exhibit is particularly suited for the Hutchinson Metro Center, which is strategically located between the #6 subway line’s Middletown Road Station and the new Morris Park Station planned for MetroNorth, underscoring the commitment to connectivity, growth, and the future of the Bronx in a powerful way.”
About Simone Development Companies
Simone Development Companies is a full-service real estate investment company specializing in the acquisition and development of healthcare, mixed-use, office, industrial, retail and residential properties. Headquartered at the Hutchinson Metro Center, it boasts a portfolio of over 7 million square feet throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, Long Island, Westchester County, Orange and Fairfield Counties and New Jersey. With expertise spanning acquisition, development, construction, finance, asset management, accounting, leasing and property management, Simone Development Companies is set apart by its vertically integrated management team, long-term asset ownership and its pursuit of visionary development.