Unhinged #1

by Benjamin Gibson

“I love New York. To me it feels like the beating heart of relentless American confidence and ambition — the ethos of a culture compressed onto an island. I visited the United States several times in 2024 and 2025, curious how the country sees itself in this moment in time. In Times Square, a performer dressed as Elmo works one of the busiest intersections on earth, where childhood nostalgia becomes street currency. A defiant mascot of survival in a distracting theatre of spectacle.”