Before college, the most “international” experiences I had in South Dakota were probably my summers working as a tour guide at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society (Laura still has fans, truly, from all over the world.)  Now that I live in NYC, every day is like being front-row at the Olympics, and I was reminded of this blessing last week when I took a walk with men from 99 different countries…sort of.

Returning home from Brooklyn’s IKEA (for its Swedish meatballs, I should add,) I found myself strolling next to Maya Barkai’s “99 Men,” a 500-foot-long art installation highlighting 99 versions of the international “walk” symbol found on traffic signals around the world:

According to Barkai’s Web site, the project began in 2004, during a Bloomberg initiative to replace the standard traffic light signs with “more pedestrian friendly” symbols. With the spotlight on NYC’s traffic light, Barkai got an idea. Over the the next few years, Barkai gradually began photographing different representations of similar icons throughout her travels.

The juxtaposition of the icons makes for a very interesting “walking tour” around the world.

The finished product is at 99 Church Street where, interestingly, a Four Seasons hotel is under construction (cue “Walk Like a Man” by Frankie Valli and, of course, The Four Seasons).