NYC Subway Construction, by Pierre and Granville Pullis

NYC Subway Construction, by Pierre and Granville Pullis

NYC Subway Construction, by Pierre and Granville Pullis

NYC Subway Construction, by Pierre and Granville Pullis

NYC Subway Construction, by Pierre and Granville Pullis

NYC Subway Construction, by Pierre and Granville Pullis

Pierre Pullis had a photography studio on Fulton Street, in New York City, but he spent a lot of time working outside its walls. For about four decades in the first half of the 20th century, he lugged his camera to some rather inconvenient places around the city—including beneath its boulevards.

Pullis was an early photographer of subway construction, tapped by the agencies responsible for building the first underground rapid transit line in NYC. Along with his slightly younger brother, Granville, Pierre took tens of thousands of photographs of stations, equipment, construction sites, and the people who built the stations, as well as the pedestrians who would eventually wedge themselves onto the trains.

(via atlasobscura.com)