How New York Breaks Your Heart

by Bill Hayes

Bill Hayes's critically acclaimed memoir Insomniac City provided a first look at his unique street photography. Now he presents an exquisite collection that captures the full range of his work and the magic of chance encounters in New York City.

Hayes's "frank, beautiful, bewitching" street photographs "unmask their subjects' best and truest selves" (Jennifer Senior, New York Times ): A policeman pauses at the end of a day. Cooks sneak in cigarette breaks. A pair of movers plays cards on the back of a truck. Friends claim the sidewalk. Lovers embrace. A flame-haired girl gazes mysteriously into the lens. And park benches provide a setting for a couple of hunks, a mom and her baby, a stylish nonagenarian . . .

How New York Breaks Your Heart reveals ordinary New Yorkers at their most peaceful, joyful, distracted, anxious, expressive, and at their most fleeting--bringing the texture of the city to vivid life. Woven through with Hayes's lyric reflections, these photos will, like the city itself, break your heart by asking you to fall in love.

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction, New York, Art

160 pages, Hardcover

Published February 13, 2018

About the author

The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in nonfiction, Bill Hayes is a frequent contributor to the New York Times and the author of several books.

A photographer as well as a writer, his photos have appeared in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Granta, New York Times, and on CBS Evening News. His portraits of his partner, the late Oliver Sacks, appear in the recent collection of Dr. Sacks’s suite of final essays Gratitude.

Hayes has been a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy in Rome, the recipient of a Leon Levy Foundation grant, and a Resident Writer at Blue Mountain Center. He has also served as a guest lecturer at Stanford, NYU, UCSF, University of Virginia, and the New York Academy of Medicine.

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Photographs of New Yorkers just going about their daily lives. Bill Hayes has the uncanny ability to make you feel as if you are passing them as you go on your own way. I always wonder about people I see in photos - how they lived and what they wanted out of life. Will look up other works by this wonderful photographer.

[Stephen Henderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely little book of street photography/street portraits. I’m not normally one for much text in the photography books I “read” but I thought Bill’s framework of a sentence every few pages really added something, reminded me of a children’s picture book in that way.

[Becky Loader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bill Hayes is an amazing photographer, who has put together an outstanding photographic essay about New York--and life. With minimal words, he has conveyed a lot of emotion.

Excellent.

[Amy]

I liked it? It was okay? I felt nothing as I flipped through, but perhaps the prerequisite is liking New York or having an interest in photography?

I won't rate it. I have no business skewing the stars with my uncultured opinion.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the books I received through the free giveaways. I just received it in the mail and had to read it right away. It is a collection of photographs. I love it. It really captures New York City. You can see where the photographer went all over the city, through different seasons and captured all these people in wonderful photographs. Want to learn about the residents of New York City. Here it is!

[T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won a free advanced copy of this book thanks to Goodreads and the publisher. This does not affect my review in any way.

Bill Hayes beautifully captures the people of New York City from different walk of life. Each photograph is compelling; some are portraits while others are a quick snapshot of daily life.

This would be a great coffee table book or a nice collection for photography enthusiasts.

[Lisa DeWaard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely LOVE this book. It's a wonderful book of photography of the people of New York City. Mostly black and white, a few in color, the photographs are amazing. It really tells the story of the city with pictures and very few words. I live in Iowa but I've been to New York several times and it just catches the spirit. I'd recommend this book especially to people who love photography but really to anyone who loves New York. The book did the opposite of breaking my heart.

[Jeanneane Maxon · Rating 5 out of 5]

How New York Breaks Your Heart takes the reader on a picture tour of New York-but not of tour-sights, of people in a similar vein to "Human of New York." Each face presents an unspoken story, left to reader interpretation. A recommended read for people watchers, photography lovers, and New York City lovers.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my goodness I love this book. I have always admired New York City and this book really shows the viewers its inhabitants and allows one to fall in love with them as well. My favorite photos were of the New Yorkers and their relationships whether with another, with music, with a park or the lack there of. What a great job with the photos and the compilation!

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked looking at the backgrounds of the pictures. As I looked at the pictures I wondered what it would be like to live or work or both in new York. Would I like new York city if I went there? Will I ever travel to new York city? It would be the biggest city I have ever been to.

Books with lots of pictures and only a little text are fun to read.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Hayes' photographs, New York plays only a supporting role. The real stars are the New Yorkers, ordinary people, street people, people who obviously care about each other or about the person taking the picture.

[Russell Barton · Rating 4 out of 5]

An evocative book, full of pictures of New Yorkers. They might be residents, they might be visitors, they’re old and young, all races, all types. It’s a great companion piece to the excellent ‘Insomniac City’.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this brief and candid view of NY. Very fly-on-the-wall sort of thing. I've been to the city many times, and this sort of feels like what it might be like to actually live there. Very mundane, day-to-day sort of moments.

[Amanda Panda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Won this on good reads. Nice coffee table book. Lots of pictures of New Yorkers and a little story about the photographer. Well put together!

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Captivating and motivating. The shots taken within catch the raw emotion of the subjects.

[M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a visually interesting photo essay of a diverse city.

[kerrycat · Rating 5 out of 5]

makes me miss my favorite city even more than I already do . . .

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent eye

[Sabra Kurth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just sweet!

[Jazzy Lemon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful and intriguing photos telling a love story that ends in heartbreak.

[Kelly Sedinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

New York street photography. Does it get any better than that? Not really.

[Omar Ahmad · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the author of 'Insomniac City' comes this collection of street photographs representing the magic of chance encounters in 'The City That Never Sleeps'.

#BillHayes #InsomniacCity #NYC #PeopleOfNewYork #HowNewYorkBreaksYourHeart

[Jacob Meza · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simple book that makes you fall in love with a city.