There's a difference between being alone and loneliness. Besides, are you really alone if you have someone stalking you with a camera? :)

The introduction statement seemed pretty clueless to me. The loneliness of a person who doesn’t believe in a god? Uh. No. What? I’m sure there are many lonely atheists but not because they are atheists. What an ignorant thing to say. And anyway, some of these photos seem staged and not candid. And many others just look like people walking alone. Any of those people could be walking towards their families, lovers, friends or pets. Or might be totally alone but not lonely. It’s shallow to try and create drama, trauma and sadness out of bland a*s basic s**t.

Do they exist on the margins or are they in the majority. When I moved from a country village to London, it was from a population of <500 to c. 8m and it was by far the loneliest place I've encountered. I'd prefer to be alone than surrounded by people yet still on my own.

Another article with an inaccurate headline.

how do you deal with being alone when living in the big city when surrounded by people? The solution is to find something you are interested in and join a small group with like-minded people. You build a surrogate family with connections to one degree or another... Find an open group that you are interested in.... Church, synagogue, and religion are always a great place to start.. All big cities will have at least one church with a large singles group. You may not agree with everything they say, but it can still be worthwhile socially to go be with them. Other groups are political action groups, environmental concerns groups, and other groups. The worst thing you can do is to go into your lonely apartment on Friday night, hole up, and stay there alone until you go out again Monday morning. Don't do this. And don't just go to a bar, sit all night, and drink beer with strangers. You might get someone to chat with you, but these people are not your friends. Don't expect them to care about you or do anything for you. It can be very lonesome to live in a big city and not know anybody. This is the way to deal with it. Yes, this works, try it and see.

I agree with everyone else - the opening statement is very true, often people living in large urban areas are the loneliest, the same is said about London back home. being around people does not make the loneliness disappear. But to think everyone in these photos without ever speaking to them is lonely is far fetched. As a set of photos though, they are amazing. Street photography is not easy and personally I think these look fantastic, both the composition, mood and atmosphere of each is great. The photographer is very skilled.

"Loneliness"? Since when is a person sitting in a park, clearly reading something he's immersed in, "lonely"? Since when is it "lonely" to be walking any city street with a headset on and SOMEONE WALKING RIGHT NEXT TO YOU? Since when is being alone by choice something that is "lonely" to the stalking photographer---because that's what you did, you stalked all of the subjects of your photos. I didn't get the impression of loneliness from any one of these, only the choice to be alone. Rethink your title---it seriously needs revision!

The pretext of this post is incorrect. Alone does not equal loneliness.

I really liked the photos but the only one I saw that could be loneliness is the girl on the subway. The rest looked like people looking for a little solitude, which I imagine is hard to find in New York.

Nice article