Union Sq. is now a very happening meeting place for the younger New Yorkers, but thirty years ago, it wasn’t…
This image and most others can be licensed for documentary use and is also available as a signed print…
Urban Photos by Matt Weber
Amazing how one picture can change everything.
This one almost did just that. I saw a man with a red backpack adjusting his yarmulke, when suddenly “Der Rote Lastwagon” made its fateful left turn. Suddenly the Bechers became seekers and had me over to their house, full of other important Dusseldorfians. Shore swore it was not a bore. Ladd was glad. Bram said Damn! Stuart said screw it, and almost stopped taking pictures. Gilden left the building. Peters said it was sweeter. Turpin started chirping. Blake said it was Jake. Eric became hysteric. Harper said it was sharper. Poor Vivian, almost came back from oblivion. Meyerowitz hired it for Bystander. Even Colberg called to apologize for bashing “street” for so many years…
But then Frank said it stank and it was over.
This might be my favorite summer snap from 2014. I just read that Arthur Leipzig had died and he spent some time shooting Coney Island before I was born. I have many books from the photographers who worked New York back in the days of the Photo League, and I hope that some of my work contains a tiny essence of their spirit…