New Years Eve 1966, using a Rolleiflex camera and Kodak color transparency film, photographer Danny Lyon spent the evening photographing those travelling on New York's subway.

Here are some of those images.

Danny Lyon was famous for his work photographing the civil rights movement in the south and motorcycle gangs in Chicago. 

When he returned to New York, his mother told him, if he ever got bored, he should "just talk to someone on the subway.”

Danny didn't use a tripod for any of the photos as they weren't allowed on the subway, even when the frame had moving objects, which created a blur effect on some of the photos featuring motion. Since the color film was slow, he leaned on poles to keep his camera steady.

“The color film was slow, so I often made long exposures by leaning on a column to keep the camera steady, moving objects like people show up as ghostly blurs in several images, an apt visual metaphor for rush hour"

“I love riding the subway. When I speak with someone on the subway, I find New Yorkers easily slip into a conversation. Then they step out of the door and are gone.”

His portraits capture these fleeting interactions – subjects seem to have been lost in thought until Lyon’s lens caught their attention for a moment

Critics have noted the series is similar in tone to Edward Hopper’s paintings of lone, contemplative city dwellers