Breaking up in New York City

Yes, my blog has gone very personal lately, but you know what? I like it! And I hope you do too.

Now this doesn’t mean I won’t post travel tips anymore – I actually have very interesting ones coming soon – but I am also a photographer and what I do with my shots is tell stories as much as I can. Well, a couple of days ago I remembered about a series of photos I took in New York City…

Dark New York City skyline

Back in 2009 I spent 6 months in NYC. I moved to the Big Apple with my ex boyfriend. We left Italy together, never been to the US before, and faced this adventure side by side.

Four months after the big move, for many reasons I won’t be talking about on this post, I decided to break up and move out of our studio apartment in the Upper West Side. After days of hectic flat hunting, I ended up living in a student hall in the Lower East Side (yes I signed up for a university course that I never attended).

In those days I was attending my first photography course and had to carry out an assignment every week. Me and my classmates didn’t have a subject to work on. Anything worked as long as we developed a photo story with a topic, and practiced what we learned on our classes.

I always had a lot of problems deciding for a subject, but this time it came out naturally. I decided to document what I was going through, and came up with the following 5 shots. I remember showing these to my classroom the next week, bursting out into tears while explaining my subject, followed by my teacher. She was moved so I guess I did a good job…

1: the couch where he used to sleep on our last days together – no motion

2: me, packing – motion

3: me, moving out – motion

4: my taxi in the Lower East Side – motion

5: the corridor at my new place – no motion

I hope you liked the photos. Don’t worry, I am ok now… this was a long time ago, and if I shared these photos now it means I’m 100% over it.

Did you ever have to break up while abroad? Did you move out and leave your partner just like this? You can leave a comment if you feel so… Oh and in case you’re wondering, no he doesn’t read my blog.