The Bagel They Came Back To

Eriko & Makoto · 11.19.2025 · New York Public Library, Subway, Brooklyn Heights & Brooklyn Bridge Park, New York, NY

Eriko and Makoto’s prewedding photo session in New York moved from the New York Public Library to the subway, Brooklyn Heights, and Brooklyn Bridge Park, tracing the city where they first met and began their life together.

Eriko and Makoto’s story began in New York.

Eriko came from Tokyo. Makoto was from Brooklyn. During one of Eriko’s trips to New York, they met, started to know each other, and slowly found their way into a relationship that would cross distance, time zones, and eventually lead them back to the city together.

They spent part of their relationship living apart. Later, they decided to move closer, and in April 2026, they will get married in Japan before beginning their life together in Brooklyn.

For their prewedding photo session in New York, they wanted the city to hold more than a backdrop. It was the place where their relationship first opened, and each location carried a small part of that history.

We met at the New York Public Library. Makoto was a little shy in front of the camera at first, the way many Asian grooms can be when a session begins. Eriko was open from the start. She laughed easily, and when she smiled, the whole mood became lighter.

After the library, we made a few portraits along Fifth Avenue before taking the subway toward Brooklyn. On the train, they leaned into each other, talked quietly, and joked in small ways. The subway gave the session a rhythm that felt familiar to New York: movement, pauses, people passing, the two of them staying close inside it all.

In Brooklyn Heights, the day became slower. It is one of my favorite neighborhoods in Brooklyn, with quiet historic streets, old brownstones, and the skyline of Wall Street just across the water. We walked through the streets in late autumn, with fallen leaves gathered along the sidewalks and underfoot.

Then came the bagel.

When Eriko and Makoto first met, Eriko had brought Makoto a bagel. They sat outside and ate it together on the street, happy and unguarded. For this session, they brought that memory back. They found a small storefront in Brooklyn, sat down outside, spread a thick layer of cream cheese, and shared a bagel again.

There were small pumpkins arranged around the shop entrance, the kind of detail that could have been easy to miss. But it fit the moment: simple, seasonal, a little playful, and completely theirs.

Later, we went to Brooklyn Bridge Park. By then, the session was close to ending. Eriko’s dress had dragged across the ground, picking up mud along the hem. When she noticed it, she laughed with a mischievous smile, as if the mess had become part of the story too.

Before we finished, they showed me a selfie they had taken years earlier, around the time they first knew each other in New York. I asked them to hold it up toward my camera. In one frame, there they were together now, with the younger version of themselves held between them.

The city had changed around them. So had they. But somehow, the same thread was still there.

Creative Team

Makeup & Hair: Yao Yao
@yaoyao_muy