Jay Giampietro is a writer, director, actor and musician whose short films have played the New York Film Festival, BAMcinemaFest, and the Montclair and Maryland Film Festivals. His short film Hernia won the 2015 Hammer to Nail Summer Shorts contest and he made his acting debut in the feature Stinking Heaven, which was distributed by Factory 25. His street photography capturing the eccentric denizens of New York City has been praised by The Village Voice, British GQ and The Guardian and is the subject of Joe Stankus’ short documentary I’ve Never Been A Fisherman. His most recent short films are Quarterbacks (2018) and Unpresidented (2017).
The following images were captured by New York City-based filmmaker and street photographer Jay Giampietro over the course of November 8 and the early hours of November 9. — N.D.
This was the strangest night of all time in this city. I’m in shock. I didn’t realize when I was shooting this stuff that I was documenting the triumph of a kind of people I didn’t think existed in New York.
There’s one guy called “Spiritual reckoning,” who is one of the wildest characters I’ve ever seen in my life. I had tried to get a picture of him a few years ago but he freaked out and I’ve been on the hunt for him ever since. He was stomping around, eating Ding Dongs and downing Yoo-hoo and screaming vicious religious non sequiturs, “Trump is in charge. People are only gonna be allowed to have one kid, only allowed to have one pet.” Really glad to have captured him.
