Left: Downtown Alliance president Jessica Lappin, takes the inaugural selfie at the kiosk in Albany Plaza at Albany and Greenwich streets, just south of the World Trade Center. Right: The result, utilizing the iPad's ability to convert the color photo to black and white. Photos: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib (left); Downtown Alliance (right)
Selfie lovers take note. An iPad-equipped kiosk, in the new plaza at Albany and Greenwich streets, was unveiled last month, allowing users to capture a photo of themselves—minus the awkward crouching and arm maneuvering.
The bright red structure, developed by the Downtown Alliance, captures towering One World Trade Center in the background.
Sarita Dan, director of strategic marketing and tourism for the Alliance, got the idea for the kiosk last spring when she noticed people struggling to take pictures of themselves with the tower in the background.
“I thought there had to be a way that we could facilitate that,” Dan said. “We did some research to buy a selfie kiosk, but they didn’t exist. So then we did more research on how to create one.”
Melissa Lawson, who was visiting from Louisiana, had one question, probably on other visitors’ minds, when she realized that she could have her face immortalized in front of the tower. “Does it cost anything?”
Much to Lawson’s delight, the device is free, and users can share their pictures through email, Facebook and Twitter, with the message “Greetings from #LowerManhattan” splashed on the side, plus one that they can type in themselves.
(Before users take their photos, a message pops up asking them to consent to a waiver that allows the Downtown Alliance to use their image in promotional materials.)
Although most people one recent afternoon had no problem following the on-screen directions, some could be seen trying again and again to get just the right pose.
“That was cool,” Fauzia Ferhan said after she and her husband Noah, from Washington, D.C., finally managed to get their squirming son Zachi into the frame of the photo.
Before coming across the kiosk, Susan, Dennis and Jaclyn Mertz of Maryland had tried—and failed—to use an iPhone to capture the family and the tower in one shot.
“We were just talking about how we should’ve had one of those selfie extenders that they were advertising,” Susan said. “But we didn’t get one for Christmas.”
The Alliance will keep track of the number of people who use the kiosk and may introduce it to other locations if it proves to be popular, according to Alliance president Jessica Lappin. One benefit, she hopes, will be to attract more tourists to the plaza area and, in turn, help neighboring businesses.
The custom-made, $17,000 machine is also part of what Lappin called the “new wave of tourism.”
“People want to communicate using social media,” she said after taking the “inaugural” selfie at the kiosk. “[It was] created to tell friends and family, ‘Here’s where I am.’ In the old days you’d send a postcard, now you tweet a selfie.”