From Fire Escapes in El Paso to the Heartbeat of New York

My first job started just after I turned fifteen: volunteering at KXCR 89.5 FM, “The Heart of El Paso.” It's a small, local jazz station in El Paso, Texas. On air, I used the name Steve Young, starting the first of many radio personas, with record spinning, letting the sounds of jazz wash over me. The station was also home to the Latin America News Service, which helped me discover journalism. I started to see storytelling, and photography as a way to capture life and revealed the first glimmer of a larger ambition.

Upon the arrival of the new program director, I knew the moment had come to leave. Jobs are a necessity, and I quickly stepped into a role with The Popular Dry Good Company, a historic department store that had been drawing in shoppers in the heart of downtown El Paso since the early 1900s. Built by Adolph Schwartz and his family, the store began with humble beginnings and blossomed into a grand, six-story building in the Chicago School style. It had a calming, timeless elegance with white terra-cotta tiling. Generations of families shopped there, and walking through its doors always felt like stepping into a piece of local history.

What captivated me most about this building was not the front entrance or the interior showrooms. Rather, it was the back. I appreciated the complexity of the fire escapes that crept up the walls as they weaved in and out around the iron railings, weathered piping, and the other stark structures that contrasted the sky. The view of the back of the building looked like the New York City back alleys I had only seen in photographs. I was only fifteen, and as I looked up at the layers of fire escapes, I was longing for something more. The fire escapes and piping suggested bigger things like wider and more crowded streets, taller buildings with big opportunities. I took a photograph of that back wall and kept it in my pocket, next to an image of the New York skyline that my pen pal had sent me. It was a reminder that I would one day go to New York and live the life I had always imagined.

I achieved my goal; I got to move to New York City and begin my career as a photojournalist. I got assignments to photograph and write articles for different local papers as a stringer. I got to experience the essence of the City by walking the streets every day. I got to soak in the feeling of the City and all its mesmerizing splendors. It’s a city that possesses its own unique style and rhythm. Its heartbeat is alive and it will never tire. It is represented in the thick mist that is released from the ground and the countless sums of people who call New York City home. It is seen when a street performer captivates the people who are walking by, and music entertains the whole city.

It’s in this city that the world has integrated and merged cultures, and the essence of New York City has blossomed. It is the home for the loft style artist, late night room jazz attorneys, and the diverse worldly foods you can sample daily. It will never tire and continues to pulsate across all cultures and time. It is the home for the loomer and controller increaser. It is the home for the newly and incredibly developed.

Street photography as a teenager and being published made me feel accomplished. I remember dreaming about my first publication as I stood behind a department store in El Paso.

Now I think about a simple photograph of a fire escape and how it made me feel so strong about exploring. I can still feel the pull of New York. I want to photograph the City again and feel the pulse of it. I want to feel the City calling me again.