Matt Weber (Street photography), Kids & Teens, Old New York

“My Stoop” 1989

I get nostalgic for my old stoop. Stoops are great for chilling and swilling cold brews during the summer. (Guiliani did put a dent in that activity by putting the cops on “Zero Tolerance”)

In the morning this stoop was great for people watching. All the suits and secretaries would run with such serious expressions on their mugs, as they tried to catch the 8:55 crosstown bus.

Late at night, I could smoke a nice Cubano and not have to worry about yuppy neighbors squalking constantly about the stench.

Yes, stoops were also perfect for the great American past time of girl watching.

The stoop was also a place where every now and then, I’d take a photograph worth printing. This one always pleased me…

 

© Matt Weber

Matt Weber (Street photography), Color, Kids & Teens

Riverside Park 2011

When I took this picture in Riverside Park, I had just finished smoking a small but succulent cigar with my friend Dave Beckerman, a talented photographer, who had recently given up smoking cigarettes. When I was a teenager like these kids, I would have to keep my eyes peeled for cops, if I were to smoke something. As of today, mayor Bloomberg has imposed a new anti-smoking law which many feel is unfair, and others are celebrating. I don’t want kids to start smoking cigarettes and cigars are too strong for most kids and most women. They are either loved or loathed by all. I haven’t done shit worth spouting about, but plenty of older men have been sitting on a park bench and enjoying their tobacco for decades. Many of them served in the second world war or Korea. Others Vietnam. Most have paid their dues one way or another, and deserve the pleasure of sitting in the park and puffing their stinky cigars and deadly cigarettes, while they read their newspapers. I think that if one occasionally smells a whiff of tobacco in the air, they will most probably be no worse for the wear. Now for the first time in decades, I will have to break the law if I want to smoke a cigar, and I don’t like it… Very few people like cigar smoke, so very few will feel a bit of concern for my plight. That’s cool. I may not deserve sympathy, but the oldtimers do…

All Photos © Matt Weber

Matt Weber (Street photography), America, Cars & Buses, Kids & Teens

“Arizona-New Mexico” 1992

I’m not sure where I was when I came upon these kids. I took very few pictures of people on my cross country trip and wish I had been more aggressive in that dept…I was feeling like a stranger in a strange land, having never left New York for more than a few days. The negatives from this trip were sitting around collecting dust for the past nineteen years and I finally took them out a few weeks ago. Turns out that there were plenty of shots that were decent enough to scan and I suppose the trip was much more successful than I had thought. Maybe it’s just the passage of time which has a way of making certain pictures seem more special than they really are…

 

All Photos © Matt Weber

Matt Weber (Street photography), Kids & Teens

“The Getaway!” 2010

Something’s going on, but I’m not sure what. Maybe they helped their friend, (In a nightgown with sneakers untied) escape from a hospital. Maybe he was just grounded for a few weeks. Most of the buildings on the upper west side have a second door in the kitchen which leads to a staircase for fires and emergencies. I had to use that door on occasion when I was their age to make my getaway. Maybe the kid in the gown is texting his parents and apologizing for his escape, just moments after having fled the coop…

 

© 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