Introducing: Subway Rat

A series with photographer Hannah La Follette Ryan of @subwayhands.

I’m so excited about today’s newsletter. My friend Hannah La Follette Ryan and I have wanted to collaborate for months now, and it’s finally happening: Meet our resident Subway Rat, who will regularly report on the city’s latest underground styles. Hannah is the supremely talented photographer behind @subwayhands, an Instagram account featuring tender portraits of riders’ hands that she started in 2015 and now has over 400k followers. 

“When I ride the subway, I’m glued to gesture and detail,” Hannah, whom I met in college, tells me. “It’s my artistic nature to be nosy, and, conveniently, my job as a street photographer enables this quality.” She’s always curious about what’s poking out of peoples’ grocery bags: “Does a baguette mean soup night? Banh mi? Bruschetta?” She’s clocking what strangers are reading, then underlining or scribbling in the margins. “Most recently, I watched a man underline half a page in a book about 19th-century child welfare in Ireland and write ‘WILD,’” she recalls. “We reveal ourselves in the mindless everyday details of our lives.”

Because she’s out and about most days, Hannah also has a street’s eye view of what the city is wearing. Over the last month, she captured a series of micro-style moments for Shop Rat—the little things we do to make ourselves feel like ourselves when it’s freezing outside. “I witnessed New Yorkers reaching for creature comforts, vibrant colors, and cheerful accents,” she reports. A woman named Lisa, for example, wore a charming pair of pins on her coat: a rabbit and a bedazzled roadrunner, both a gift from her mom. She took solace in having them with her on her lapel. Hannah also helped a man bestow the name ‘Charlemagne’ upon his thrifted gold alligator brooch. Below is a selection of Hannah’s images. I’m so honored to share them!

*Make sure you wait for all the images to load and scroll to the very bottom.

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“Everywhere I looked, animal plushie keychains stared back at me, like analog Tamagotchis. Cute critters dangled from teen backpacks, designer handbags, Zoomer cargo pant belt loops. These functional emotional support stuffed animals also reappear as sneaker charms and ear muffs. What is more comforting than nostalgia?”

“Prim and demure headbands were riding every train line. Welcome back, Blair Waldorf.”

“Personally, I’ve long discriminated against people who wear funky socks. But moving forward, I will make an exception for socks with beloved cartoon motifs.”

“I firmly believe you cannot be cool in New York until you’re over 60.”

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Hannah La Follette Ryan is a Brooklyn-based artist and educator from Amherst, MA. Her Subway Hands series has been featured in dozens of publications in the US and abroad. She freelances for New York magazine and The Nation and has collaborated with Boy Genius, Valentino, the Guggenheim, and many others. She currently teaches street photography at the International Center of Photography.