Objects in human faces? That is a little to scary, even for me. When walking around the city and especially when riding on the subway, where one can look straight ahead at the opposite side of the train and study a long line of endless faces, I often take mental pictures. I then look for these same emotions or facial expressions back up on the sidewalk level in street objects. A famous photographer once described his street shooting of people as a safari, but my process is more like a treasure hunt, looking for human traits in everyday objects. When I graduated from art college in 1966, I spent most of my time shooting people on the streets of Philadelphia. Then when I moved to NYC a few years later I observed that New Yorkers respect everyone else’s personal space and privacy. Confronting someone with a lens, explaining what you are up to, and then answering questions about your motives, just adds too much complexity and time to what is a daily form of fun and relaxation for me. Besides I never had to ask a fire plug or a tree for a model release.

 

To what extent do you modify or change your digital images when they are processed in your computer?

When I find some of these images on the street I often think to myself that they are “unreal” or “too good to be true.” I never needed to collage, add or subtract elements or paint new colors, I just bring existing buried colors in the file forward to the point of where they were when I first observed it. Our eyes have such an incredible dynamic range that no camera I have ever used can capture. I see and perceive color as saturated rainy day wet with glowing yellows, hot ember reds and icy blues, and all that is contained within a good digital file. Much of that intensity levels off when the camera/computer displays the image to me. Later on in the process of downloading the images to the computer, minor readjustments are made to correct and get back what my mind’s eye what was originally absorbed. In the early years of shooting, my film cameras had lots of interchangeable lenses, such as a wide angle, fish eye or even a bellows for distortion or correction that would change the overall shape of an object. Lately, I have experimented a little with a bend or warp, but only in the same way a lens swap on a camera body would have done. Sometimes a little wiggle or distortion can bring an object to life and add a little humor, but I never adjust too far from the master. Also, when I adjust any light and dark shapes, it would only be to mimic what I would do in a studio environment if I could drag street objects back to my studio. Technique aside, in the end, the final result must stand on its own, and at that point the finished picture takes over and has a visual voice that seems to speak directly to the viewer.

What are some interesting encounters you’ve had with people on the street while taking pictures?

A few weeks ago I was walking along the close inner edge of some buildings and looking at windows reflecting, when I noticed a church steeple overlaying with a beautiful decorative iron gate on the opposite side of the street. To get the two opposing images to align and overlap successfully, I had to lay down almost flat on the sidewalk and angle my camera straight up, with may back to the street and pedestrians. I felt a gentle tap on my shoulder from behind me. I looked up at a large gentleman who said to me “Are you okay, do you need some help getting up?” I guess he thought I was curled up in pain, possibly kneeling and praying for spiritual help from the church across the street. I showed him what I was trying to shoot in my camera screen and surprisingly he knowingly smiled and said to me “I always see things like that all the time too.”

 

Your images are incredibly sharp —what kind of camera do you use? Do you use a tripod?

I make sure that all my display prints are as intense and strong as the original objects were on the street that caught my eye to begin with. I do not want the viewer to just look at “photographs” but to become involved and immersed in the subject within, that either shocks, compels a thought or ignites a laugh. All of my pictures are shot quickly, most within 10-15 seconds with a tiny digital Nikon that fits in my front jeans pocket. Because I am shooting in heavy pedestrian traffic, I cannot block the sidewalk with a tripod or spend too much time with a large format camera near dangerous intersections. In my neighborhood on the Upper West Side at 96th and Broadway I used to jump between speeding cars, buses and trucks to get “that” shot. But tragically, since three pedestrians were recently killed there, I now wait for the walk light to change, hopefully assuring that it won’t be my last photo I ever shoot.

You seem to love showing your work in libraries—are you also an avid patron? What are you reading right now? What is your favorite photography book?

My current favorite books are ones that deal with women photographers of the 19th and 20th century such as Helen Levitt, Dorothea Lange, Diane Arbus, Julia Margaret Cameron, Berenice Abbott, Margaret Bourke-White and Vivian Maier. While we are on the subject of libraries, let me say that they are amazing places and spaces to present one’s artwork. I go to the library almost every day for many reasons and always pop in other branches throughout the city to see other artists' work. Each branch seems to be a reflection of the unique character of the people and neighborhood that library is anchored in. From the earliest libraries, especially New York, they have been and continue to be a place where everyone gathers to meet, research, learn, collect and connect with others and to share information on an unlimited array of subjects. Someone once said that if you look around a library everyone is thinking, and that fact makes for an ideal venue for artists. One of my favorite memories was of a young mother with her toddler in her arms, as she walked slowly along the exhibit walls she took time to let her young child absorb and experience each and every picture. When they finished looking she turned to me and said “Thank you so much for doing this at our library, this is my young daughter’s very first art exhibition and she loves it.”