How We Live Now
I am a big fan of Bill Hayes, author of a memoir I love, Insomniac City and street photographer extraordinaire (follow him on Instagram @billhayesphotography). He was Oliver Sacks’ partner at the time of his passing and was involved in editing Oliver’s last book, Everything in Its Place, as well as a movie about his life.
Bill’s new book, How We Live Now (Bloomsbury Publishing) is somewhat of a diary that tells his stories during the time of the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown.
“Now I think about:
The last time I shook hands with a stranger.
The last time I saw people dancing.
The last time I saw people smiling.
The last time I heard kids playing.
The last time I saw traffic on Eighth Avenue.
The last time I went to the gym …
The last time I was as scared as this.
The last time I fell in love.”
In this wonderful time capsule he shares with readers so much of himself, his NYC community and photos he took during several months in 2020. I have had the pleasure of welcoming Bill to my book club, truly enjoy him and his work, and if you love New York City, you will love him and this book, too! How We Live Now, available in hard cover, recently won The New York City Book Award and will be out in paperback this January. It is a keepsake of an unimaginable time.
A: I started working on How We Live Now just a week or two into the lockdown in March 2020, and wrote and photographed the book over an intense 3-month period, 7 days a week. Usually, I’d write or edit in the mornings; go out and take photos on the street in the afternoon; and then edit photos at night. It was a great gift to have this creative challenge to keep me engaged and hopeful, and to keep depression and loneliness at bay.
Q: You have such a warm and positive way about you — really the perfect city dweller. Why do some people only see the grit and grime of NYC with the homelessness and danger, and how would you recommend they change their outlook to also see all the beauty and unique qualities you notice?
A: That’s a hard one to answer. Sometimes I think some people are just not suited to live in big cities like New York — a city of extremes: danger and kindness, homelessness and great wealth, beauty and grit and grime. One of my first thoughts for those you describe, is: Talk to a homeless person. Take a moment to see how they’re getting along. Give them a few bucks and a bottle of water. Ask after them. Wish them well. You might see them differently then.
Q: This book was a snippet in time that covers the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, and I was wondering if you have continued recording the second half and the re-emergence of a different life in the Big Apple, and how this new normal has impacted you, your relationships and your career?
A: Yes, I have continued chronicling to some extent. I still keep a journal. I would have written about the pandemic and taken photos during those early days even if I had not decided to publish a book and gotten a contract. But my pace slowed over last summer and fall and winter. I honestly did not enjoy photographing people on the street in masks, after finishing my book. I just found it depressing, and I couldn’t see their facial expressions, of course. And yet now, I find I’m out taking photos more regularly again, with people more unmasked and faces visible. I’m enjoying street photography again — in a way I hadn’t for a year.
Q: You are not originally from New York, but you have made your home there for quite a while. Do you consider yourself a true New Yorker, and would you ever consider moving somewhere else?
A: I definitely consider myself a New Yorker by now — I think I did early on. I think one can become a New Yorker right after moving here. The test, as I put it in Insomniac City, is: You know you’re a New Yorker when you are away from the City and feel like you’re missing something. Would I ever consider myself moving elsewhere? Sure. As much as I love New York, I also know life is short and there may be another place — or other places — I’d like to live later on. I just turned 60, so that’s not far from my mind …
Q: Can you tell us what you are currently working on?
A: I’m busy. I have a new book coming out in January, one that I’ve worked on — off and on — for years, but finished during the pandemic: SWEAT: A History of Exercise. A paperback of How We Live Now will come out at the same time. And I have completed the screenplay for a film of Insomniac City, which is actually in production with Hopscotch Features and with a great director signed on to direct. I’m not sure exactly when film production will start, though.
