NYC is full of iconic rock ‘n’ roll moments like Bob Dylan’s album cover — and this photographer is highlighting the history

New York City’s streets hide legendary stone ’n’ rotation moments you ne'er knew were there — until Steve Birnbaum brings them backmost to life.

The Big Apple-based photographer and filmmaker is nan encephalon down @TheBandWasHere — a viral task that resurrects iconic medium covers correct wherever they were changeable decades ago.

Birnbaum tracks down wherever celebrated set photos were snapped, past goes backmost to those nonstop spots to re-create nan shots — medium covers, promo pics, you sanction it. 

His provender is simply a rotation telephone of NYC stone legends for illustration nan Strokes, Talking Heads, Blondie, Ramones, Bob Dylan, and Simon & Garfunkel — each brought backmost to life correct where nan magic primitively happened.

Think Bob Dylan strolling connected nan same chilly Greenwich Village sidewalk successful 1963, aliases the Ramones posing outside that gritty East Village wall successful 1976, each perfectly framed arsenic they are today.

But his postulation doesn’t extremity there. He besides has iconic images of nan Notorious B.I.G., Bruce Springsteen, The Doors, Cyndi Lauper, Madonna, Taylor Swift and more.

What excites Birnbaum astir is reconnecting New Yorkers pinch nan invisible soundtrack of their regular lives. 

“It’s crazy really overmuch you locomotion nan streets and spell past things … truthful galore of america locomotion by wherever Stevie Nicks erstwhile twirled aliases wherever Debbie Harry erstwhile stood … and don’t moreover notice.”

Birnbaum’s nostalgia-powered hustle taps into our obsession pinch “then-and-now” civilization and that classical NYC pridefulness to clasp connected to nan past — particularly nan aureate eras of euphony that helped specify nan city’s identity.

His provender — he counts Blondie’s Chris Stein, Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan and SZA arsenic fans — is simply a surviving depository of stone ’n’ rotation history, proving that while skyscrapers sprout and neighborhoods morph, nan psyche of NYC euphony still lingers — if you cognize wherever to look.

But don’t correction this for a speedy snap-and-post hustle. Birnbaum calls himself “a euphony historian” and makes it his eventual privilege to grant and in installments each medium cover’s original photographer.

He’s spent years chasing down nan nonstop locations of legendary photograph shoots, piecing together clues from aged interviews, performance circuit dates and set itineraries and moreover scouring Google Maps for hours. 

“I do situation myself and I effort to find photos that would conscionable beryllium reliable to do,” he said. 

He moreover studies nan original photographer’s perspective and often finds himself crouching, contorting aliases lying connected nan crushed to nail nan shot.

Birnbaum’s travel began pinch individual memories — family albums and snapshots from his younker — but quickly evolved into a full-blown passion task aft nan seismic displacement of 9/11.

“There was a cover of nan Village Voice,” he recalls, “where an creator photographer held up a image of nan World Trade Center conscionable aft nan attacks. That inspired maine artistically.” 

What started arsenic a quiet individual archive snowballed into a vibrant chronicle of popular civilization and euphony history, each anchored to nan very streets of New York.

To uncover these sites, Birnbaum dives heavy — and sometimes, a mini item tin beryllium nan key.

“When I was looking for nan original location for nan changeable of nan Greatest Hits medium from Simon & Garfunkel, I noticed Paul Simon was holding thing that looked for illustration an egg-shaped instrumentality for L’eggs pantyhose from nan 1980s,” Birnbaum recalled. “But it turned retired to beryllium my biggest hint to uncovering wherever Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel stood successful nan photo.”

He said stepping by an Upper East Side parkland “triggered my memory.”

“He was holding onto portion of a obstruction astatine 7 East 94th Street,” he said. “I was capable to way down nan location, which I ne'er thought would still beryllium around. There wasn’t a batch to spell from, but it was that small portion and detail.”

But often it’s a operation of intuition and persistence, positive knowing and loving NYC’s immense neighborhoods. “You person to beryllium crazy astatine this astatine times,” he laughed. “New York’s been tough.”

The city’s accelerated translator — from nan Lower East Side to Chinatown to towering caller developments — forms a bittersweet backdrop to his work. Each photograph captures a infinitesimal stiff successful time, but galore of those moments are fading arsenic buildings vanish aliases get repurposed.

“As overmuch arsenic I emotion New York, it really has changed a batch successful nan past five, 10 years,” he said.

His photos, often taken pinch his iPhone aliases DSLR camera, service arsenic clip machines, revealing nan unseen layers beneath nan city’s actual and steel.

For Birnbaum, that’s nan existent joyousness of his work.

“I do see myself a euphony historiographer successful respect to nan photographs,” he said, noting he’s proud to sphere NYC’s rich | philharmonic bequest — 1 photo, 1 thoroughfare area astatine a time.

It’s besides a reminder that nary matter really overmuch New York changes, its psyche ne'er fades. 

“I want group to look up and say, ‘Hey, I’m opinionated wherever euphony legends erstwhile stood,’” he said. “That connection, that history, is truthful important.”

5 NYC locations for legendary albums

1. Led Zeppelin: “Physical Graffiti,” (1975), 96 St. Marks Place
2. Bob Dylan: “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan,” (1963), mediate of Jones Street, 50 feet from West Fourth Street
3. Ramones: “Rocket to Russia,” (1977), backmost alley disconnected First Street down John Varvatos (formerly CBGB), 315 Bowery
4. Neil Young: “After nan Gold Rush,” (1970), northwest area of Sullivan Street and West Third Street
5. Simon & Garfunkel: “Greatest Hits” (1972), 7 E. 94th St.