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.
Bill Hayes is the author of Insomniac City, The Anatomist, Five Quarts, and Sleep Demons. He is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in nonfiction and was a visiting scholar at the American Academy in Rome. He is a frequent contributor to the New York Times, and his writing has appeared in the New York Review of Books, BuzzFeed, and the Guardian, among other publications. His photographs have been featured in Vanity Fair, the New York Times, and the New Yorker. He lives in New York. Visit his website at billhayes.com
New Yorkers know better than to stare on the street, but Bill
Hayes' camera is allowed to, and often his subjects, whether alone
or in pairs, stare right back at him, and now at us. It's in these
ocular embraces that we feel the humanity and the beautiful
eccentricity of these individuals being revealed. Hayes gives us
glimpses into the souls of the city's characters in these arresting
on-the-spot portraits.
*Billy Collins, former Poet Laureate of the United States*
Bill Hayes' photographs tell the story of what really makes New
York New York: its people.
*Roz Chast*
[Hayes] immortalizes ordinary people in the city that never
sleeps.
*Sam Roberts, New York Times*
[Hayes's] arresting pictures celebrate the fact that 'beauty comes
in unbeautiful ways' in the city that never sleeps.
*Heller McAlpin, NPR*
Hayes provides us an even larger look at a New York we are in
constant interaction with--its noises, colors, its claustrophobic
(yet somehow thrilling) density, and its openness, welcome
diversity, and indeed, its ability to break our hearts. . . . When
I think of the great photographers who have depicted this
city--Elliot Erwitt, Helen Leavitt, Diane Arbus, Gordon Parks to
name only a few--Hayes adds to this bounty with his own tattoo.
*Lambda Literary*
A photographic love letter to New York City and its people . . .
With every photo, Hayes captures the casual intimacy of his
subjects with their natural habitat to show what’s most
heartwarming about the city: the rare, diverse, and vital spirit of
the people in it.
*Publishers Weekly*
[Hayes's] photos are reminiscent of Diane Arbus' street portraits,
the difference being that Arbus was drawn to the strangeness in
people while Hayes is drawn to their warmth and beauty.
*Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle*
Just in time for Valentine's Day, this love letter in photos
documents a diverse range of city dwellers while capturing both the
excitement and loneliness of living among them.
*Publishers Weekly, Top 10 Art & Photography Books*
There’s wistfulness in Hayes’ title, for the beauty that breaking
reveals. With his photos, Hayes seems to say that if a city breaks
your heart, look to its people to piece it back together again.
*Booklist*
Here we see Hayes' excellent eye, and his ability to portray his
subjects with intimacy and immediacy. The photos tell something
about the photographer, as well: how he is drawn to people, and
must seem worthy of their trust. The delectation goes both
ways.
*The Bay Area Reporter*
Readers should consider themselves lucky that, presently, gay
writer and photographer Bill Hayes has two books for them to enjoy
. . . [How New York Breaks Your Heart] is a fascinating assortment
of New Yorkers.
*Peach ATL*
An exceptional collection of images. Here’s to [Hayes] taking many
more!
*The Brooklyn Eagle*
A beautiful companion to Insomniac City and a standalone volume
that captures the comedy, tragedy, and magic in the everyday.
*Erin Kodicek, Omnivoracious*
A stunning portfolio of portraits that reflect the city’s diversity
and lively street life.
*amNewYork*
Hayes’ photos work doubly, evoking this bittersweetness and
grasping at the dense inner lives of his subjects, though we’ll
never get a chance to know them.
*Interview*
Electric beauty with an edge of sorrow comes alive in How New York
Breaks Your Heart . . . After his stirring memoir of Oliver Sacks
and New York, Hayes turns his sensitive, sympathetic lens to the
human poetics coursing through the streets of the iconic city at
all hours of the day and night, across every social stratum, every
age, every feeling-tone. From the hipsters and the homeless and the
protesters and the lovers--oh so many lovers--emerges a chorus of
humanity singing the siren song of New York.
*BrainPickings*
Bill Hayes is a canny observer. With lyrical insight and magnetic
enthusiasm, his books analyze the wonders of the commonplace: sleep
(Sleep Demons), blood (Five Quarts) and bodies (The Anatomist).
Love and resilience lie at the root of his recent memoir, Insomniac
City, in which he leaves San Francisco for New York while grieving
his partner's death. There he perfects a new craft in street
photography, yielding the utterly remarkable selection of portraits
and snapshots in How New York Breaks Your Heart.
*Shelf Awareness*
Frank, beautiful, bewitching—[Hayes's photographs] unmask their
subjects' best and truest selves.
*Jennifer Senior, New York Times on INSOMNIAC CITY*
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