Photographer Shows Where Retired Subway Cars Go

American photographer Stephen Mallon spent three years documenting how the Metropolitan Transit Authority turns subway cars into artificial reefs.

On February 6th, Next Stop Atlantic photographer Stephen Mallon will open an exhibition at New York University; his photos show how Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) uses retires subway cars says DIYPhotography.

For the past ten years the MTA recycling project has dumped more than 2,500 stripped down subway cars into the Atlantic Ocean, where they play the role of artificial reefs. For three years the photographer has documented the recycling process: retired subway cars are kept in landfills prior to recycling, then they are put on a barge and taken into the ocean, and finally, dropped into the water.

“After being pushed and stacked like a sardine in these subways cars over the past decade, it is nice to see the sardine actually getting one of these as its new steel condo,” says Mallon in the description of his project.


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