On Spring Street in Lower Manhattan, tourists slide in line for a “cronut.” A group of 20-somethings play pickleball on a court nearby. Along the sidewalk, couples stroll hand in hand, squinting in the sun on an abnormally warm winter morning.
Out and about, too, are thousands of creators on the hunt for content. One team in particular, however, takes the (wedding) cake for most likely to capture your heart.
Jeremy Bernstein, Victor Lee and Aaron Feinberg run Meet Cutes NYC, which publishes microportraits of modern love on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. Each video begins with Mr. Bernstein asking, “Excuse me, are you two a couple?” as the team approaches a pair of unsuspecting sweethearts with their camera. “Would you mind telling me the story of how you first met?”
The romantic tales that follow offer a glimpse into love’s funny, and sometimes unpredictable, way of playing out: blind dates, first sights, second chances, airplanes, arranged marriages, May-Decembers, baseball games, book clubs, punk shows, past lives, summer nights, summer camps, sign language, funerals, dorm rooms, discos, dating apps, DMs, carwashes, karaoke, subways, sunsets, butterflies, pizzas, ice cream.
In the project’s initial months, the three friends often worked during lunch breaks and on weekends to film videos.Credit…Calla Kessler for The New York Times
The trio of 29-year-olds were not always romanticists, nor were they very active on social media. That changed when Mr. Lee and Mr. Feinberg, who met as children in Port Washington, N.Y., linked up with Mr. Bernstein, a friend from Mr. Feinberg’s childhood on the Upper West Side. Mr. Lee — who had the initial idea — was inspired by couples from his own life as well as his appreciation of man-on-the-street interviews.
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