Open call for photos

Hey New Yorkers, we’re calling on you to comb through your family archives to find photos that tell the story of summer in the city! In partnership with Melting Metropolis, we’re launching an open call for old photographs and personal histories that illustrate how New Yorkers have experienced the everyday heat of summer.

Summer in New York City is hot and often steamy. It’s the season of open fire hydrants and days spent at Coney Island and public pools. Melting Metropolis highlights how New Yorkers have historically responded to hot summer weather. How did you cool off? At the beach? With an ice cream?

This year, we are looking for photos of people cooling off on hot days within the five boroughs – dig into your personal collections and find those images that capture the essence of a New York summer!

Logistics

The call is open to anyone with a story to share, but we are most interested in photographs that were taken in NYC within the five boroughs. Each photo must include at least one human subject and a brief description.

Submissions will be open all summer!

About Melting Metropolis

What do you associate with summer in New York City? New Yorkers today face overlapping environmental challenges in summer that make it the U.S.'s third most extreme heat island. The combination of the urban heat island effect (the phenomenon of warmer temperatures in urban developed areas) with climate change (rising global temperatures), means that seasonal hot weather is becoming extreme and disrupting city life. Some urbanites will make the most of this with ice creams, summer festivals, and by returning to air-conditioning to cool off. Other New Yorkers, however, will face health-related problems and intolerable living conditions due to the heat. As New Yorkers we don't all experience the same heat. In some neighborhoods temperatures are as much as 20°F hotter than leafier ones. Yet we all face hotter summers to come: sticky, sweaty, smelly ones.  

Melting Metropolis brings together a research team to understand better the past and present of hot summers. With a focus on sensory, community, and cultural experiences in postwar London, New York, and Paris, we investigate how city dwellers have both enjoyed summer heat and sought to mitigate its negative impacts.

Melting Metropolis is funded by a Wellcome Discovery Award. We are based at the University of Liverpool and Queens College, City University of New York. Meet the team or contact us at the project website.