Matt Weber (Street photography), Fights & Playfights, Men of New York, Old New York

The Shopkeeper 1988

If you grew up in a city, this scene was pretty common. A store owner defends his turf against some thugs with a baseball bat or other club. I just found this while searching negatives from over twenty years ago. Even though the picture depicts something fairly common, I was totally psyched to find this because it’s something which I never thought I’d photographed. For reasons unknown to me, I found this image to be unworthy of printing when I took it. If I was shooting with a digital camera, would I delete it? It is amazing how time itself makes a picture seem better, even though the very concept is absurd.

I’d advise young photographers to keep ALL of your pictures on a hard drive somewhere other than your house. Terabytes are now affordable and you will be very happy that you kept some of your outtakes twenty years from now…

Street Photography © Matt Weber

Matt Weber (Street photography), Fights & Playfights, Kids & Teens

“Hey Photograph This!” 2011

These kids go to the Mickey Mantle school which is for kids that get left behind. They use to call these type of learning institutions, 600 Schools. Who knows, they might be fourth or fifth graders, and they got me real good. They began circling me and as I kept dodging snowball after snowball, one of them snuck up behind me and when I turned, he got me in the face with a cinder block sized chunk of icy snow…My Leica was completely covered as well and I had to retreat in defeat with just a few frames to console myself with…

 

© Matt Weber

Matt Weber (Street photography), Fights & Playfights, Old New York

“Snow Brawl” 1988

I like looking at old work. I find stuff which I have no memory of at all. This was obviously taken on Central Park West. Snow was always a great treat for me when I was driving a cab. The people were grateful to get a ride, and the city was a winter wonderland. Late at night was great as there were very few other motorists on the streets. That’s why these guys could rumble in the middle of the avenue without fear of being run over…

 

All Photos © Matt Weber

Matt Weber (Street photography), Fights & Playfights, homeless, Subway, Times Square

“Homeless man watching Tommy “The Duke” Morrison go down” Times Sq. 2009

Once upon a time I really enjoyed watching the Saturday afternooon fights on ABC TV. Saw Ali a few times when he was still Cassius Clay. I watched the Hagler-Hearns fight in a state of shock at the amount of punishment they endured. The first few years of Mike Tyson’s carreer was something to behold. Watching him despatch his opponents in less than two minutes time and time again, was astonishing. Unfortunately, when Mike decided to bite off Holyfield’s ear, I had seen enough. I know that are always going to great boxers and I guess I finally lost my lust for watching two men try and destroy each other.

Mayweather is a great fighter, but when he just pronounced on HBO that he’s the best fighter of all time, he made me wonder. Then I had to wonder no longer as he proclaimed that he was not only better than Muhammad Ali, but he thought that he was even better than Sugar Ray Robinson! Yes you bad and you know what…fuck off

All Photos © Matt Weber