Fleet Week in New York City is an annual event that honors the United States Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard, providing New Yorkers with a rare opportunity to engage with service members in a civilian setting. This weeklong celebration, featuring ship tours, military demonstrations, and community outreach, takes place amidst the bustling backdrop of New York City. The 2024 Fleet Week, documented in this photographic series, is an exploration of the event's cultural and symbolic significance, emphasizing the intersection of military tradition and urban life.
The images in this series capture candid, unguarded moments that reveal the human side of service members. These photographs eschew the purely performative and contrived aspects of the event, focusing instead on instances where service members are caught off guard—whether sharing a quiet moment of reflection, exchanging a smile, blowing off steam with a vape, or navigating in the city with curiosity and wonder. These authentic moments lend a sense of reality and intimacy to the series, highlighting the service members' integration into the urban fabric and their connection with the public.
These images offer a reflection on Fleet Week as a cultural ritual that reinforces themes of loyalty, service, and national identity, while also revealing the personal, often overlooked experiences of those in uniform. Through these photographs, Fleet Week 2024 is portrayed as both a celebration of military values and a reminder of the shared humanity that connects service members with the civilians they protect, emphasizing the authenticity and spontaneity of these interactions within the broader narrative of the event.
New York City. 2024.
