"Mapping Manhattan"

I read about Becky Cooper's Mapping Manhattan a few months ago, added it to my library list and it thankfully appeared in my stack yesterday. I love all maps, especially ones that are based on memory rather than functionality. In her essay, "Making Invisible Cities Visible", Cooper states: "Instead of striving for one giant 'complete' map, I should aim for many little portraits. I would ask people to map the essence of who they are and what a location is to them, and out of the mosaic of these personal visions, the place would emerge."

Cooper printed each map on a letterpress and distributed them on Broadway, Houston, and Central Park: "I gave them to as wide a variety of New Yorkers as I could find... Sometimes I chose a person because her heels were awesome. Or because he was carrying a plastic tube, and I was hoping he was an architect. But most of the time, I just chose people who looked open to the world - without headphones, curious."

Here are some of my favorites:

 Anonymous

 Philippe Petit

 Markley Boyer

 Liana Finck

Anonymous

 Caio Fonseca

 Anonymous

Allen M. Hart