Photographing New York’s Diner Culture

Breakfast at midnight, an unending stream of coffee, and the perfect bowl of matzoh ball soup. Photographer Riley Arthur is working to capture it all on instagram. She's made it her goal to visit every diner across the five boroughs, documenting it on her account @DinersofNYC.  

 

The idea came about when Arthur became taken with the architecture of the famed Neptune Diner in Astoria. After realizing no one else was documenting the city’s iconic diners she decided to take on the project herself. 

 

“All of a sudden I had one of those ‘it might as well be me’ moments and I started photographing New York City Diners.” 

 

Now, three years, 440 diners and over 3,000 followers later says she’s seen it all, and she knows how important they can be to the surrounding communities. “They’re meeting places, there are scrabble clubs that go weekly, people go on dates there,” she explains. “There isn’t anything quite like the Diner that’s ready to replace them.”

 

Arthur is a photojournalist by trade, focusing most of her work on under represented groups. A topic that seems very far away from diners. However, Arthur says the two intersect more than she initially anticipated. “There is a systemic problem within New York of Gentrification… So many of these businesses are actually in danger.”

 

Even though her instagram account has gained a substantial following, she says she hasn’t let that influence the work. “I have a pretty good sense, before I post a photo on instagram, whether it will perform well or not… but that’s not the point of the project… the point of the project is to document all the diners whether they perform well on instagram or not.” 

 

She often gets comments from followers asking where they can find the diners in her posts. She says that is exactly what she hopes to accomplish with the project, “What I am to do is show people the many beautiful they can eat at in New York City… If I can create an interest in diners I will be successful.”