PHOTOS: NYC Photographer Captures Subway Filth's 'Strange Beauty'

BROOKLYN, NY — Brian Eden was no stranger to subway grime. But he saw some at Brooklyn's Borough Hall station last fall that caught his eye: Three brown splatters on a wall covered in dusty, broken white tiles.

Eden, an advertising writer and freelance photographer, said he pondered how the marks got there and what made their unique shape. He started noticing more foul formations in subway stations and decided to lend them an artistic touch.

Since October, Eden has captured more than four dozen images of aesthetically unique filth at stations in Manhattan and Brooklyn for his "Crud" photo series. The Carroll Gardens resident said his project has made him acutely aware of the grime that surrounds straphangers every day while revealing its unexpected allure.

"I started to notice a bit more how there’s strange beauty in the grossness," Eden, 39, said. "All the different stations and all the different patterns on the wall — it’s kind of weirdly beautiful."

Eden looks for subway muck with interesting shapes, patterns and textures, he said, such as peeling paint, dripping rust or mysterious stalactites on the ceilings. He's recently started including more people in the images to "give a sense that we're living among it," he said.

"It’s interesting how we're constantly in this space and pay no mind to how gross it is," Eden said.

Eden typically rides a ferry from Brooklyn to his Lower Manhattan office, but often takes the subway when the weather is bad or he misses a boat. Riding to work on the water is "like paradise compared to the train," he said — he once saw a tile crash down from the ceiling at the Borough Hall station.

Eden said he hopes the "Crud" series will raise awareness about the crumbling state of the subway stations and other infrastructure across the U.S. But he also thinks the photos show a "touchstone" of life in New York City that's unique despite its dirtiness.

"It's such a key part of New York’s identity and what it means to live here that on the one hand, it would be really weird if all of a sudden it was all glistening," Eden said. "So I guess you can take a sense of pride in going through the crud every day."

Inspired by Eden's work? Email your own gross subway photos to patchnyc@patch.com with the subject line "Disgusting Subways" to have them included on our map of nasty stations.

(Lead images: Brian Eden's "Crud" photo series aims to capture unique formations of grime in New York City's subway stations. Photos courtesy of Brian Eden)