This Is What Times Square Is Like In the Middle of the Night

Times Square may be New York's ultimate tourist trap, but that doesn't make it any less weird and fascinating. Photographer Michael Tapp and produce William Novak recently spent two nights—from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m.—in Times Square talking to "a bunch of randos" (i.e. locals and tourists) asking them why they came to this manic place, especially late at night. The attraction is mindboggling to the hundreds of thousands of people who work in Midtown everyday, but in the middle of the night, it's a different scene. One New Yorker tells Tapp, "When I can't sleep, I go to Times Square, which is only a block away. Am I supposed to go to Bryant Park and feed the pigeons? That ain't gonna happen. Freedom, to me, is being able to walk around Times Square at two or three in the morning, and not worry about sleeping or what I have to do at the job tomorrow."
· Video: Meet The People Hanging Out In Times Square Late At Night [Gothamist]