Washington Square Park Piano Player

Washington Square Park sits at the foot of Fifth Avenue in the heart of Greenwich Village, surrounded by NYU and almost always full of activity. On the chilly spring day depicted here, a pianist was performing classical music on a grand piano beneath the arch while a crowd gathered around him. A woman in a gray coat and black hat pauses in the foreground, and between the arches the Empire State Building is visible. What interested me was the layering of all these small human moments inside one of New York’s most recognizable public spaces.