BOSS
Boss, I Missed My Photos of New York
Thanh Ton Tran (aka Six-20) — Photographer, Orbe, Switzerland
New York doesn’t wait. It doesn’t pose, it doesn’t care if I’m ready, and it certainly doesn’t forgive a missed shot. This series is my attempt to capture the city as it truly is — fast, chaotic, imperfect, alive. The photos are blurry, off-center, or imperfect on purpose: they reflect the way I experienced the streets, the light, the people, and the fleeting moments that make this city unforgettable.
Each image is a fragment of my time in New York, a snapshot of presence rather than perfection. Sometimes I’m a step behind, sometimes I’m caught by surprise, but always I’m watching, listening, feeling. Boss, I Missed My Photos of New York is less about failing at photography and more about being present in the city, letting the chaos and beauty exist exactly as they are.
Because in New York, the perfect photo doesn’t exist — only the honest one does.
The city doesn’t wait
New York doesn’t pose. It moves on, fast, whether I’m ready or not.
Out of focus
I try to understand the city while it’s already slipping away.
Moving geometry
Even blurred, the city keeps its rhythm and its lines.
Memory before image
What I remember isn’t sharp, but it’s exactly how I lived it.
Always a step behind
I photograph the city slightly late, like everything else in New York.
Colors that resist
When everything blurs, some colors insist on staying alive.
New York, in fragments
The city gives itself in pieces, never all at once.
Boss, I missed my photos of New York
And maybe that’s the only honest way to photograph it.
Vertical accumulation
Time, space, and architecture condense into a single upward movement.
Continuous transit
The city functions as a permanent passage rather than a destination.
Intersecting trajectories
Individual paths briefly overlap before separating again.
Nocturnal extension
The rhythm persists beyond daylight, uninterrupted.
Multiplication of surfaces
The city reproduces itself through reflection and repetition.
Fixed reference
The monument operates as a stable point within a moving system.
Immobility
While the city transforms, the figure remains unchanged.
Symbolic threshold
The monument marks a transition between idea and territory.
Distance as meaning
Separation reinforces the monument’s symbolic function.
Material presence
Proximity transforms the symbol into physical mass.