Matt Weber (Street photography), Coney Island, homeless, Men of New York

Coney Island 2011

John Wayne Handy Jr. 46 years old. He was very upset and we were discussing why god has let him live, while just a day earlier god took the life of an eight year old boy. The boy was from Brooklyn and he was dismembered. He kept moaning “Why didn’t god take me instead”  “I’m just a fucking Wino!” Yes, god was very busy rooting for the Yankees since he is also their pitching coach…

 

© Matt Weber

Matt Weber (Street photography), Men of New York, Portraits, Subway

“Subway Gaga” 2011

Sometimes you’re sitting on the fence. You don’t know if it’s worth it or not. The guy on the right is not a happy camper. Then he raises his hand to his face, and all of a sudden the impulse becomes too strong to ignore. It’s as involuntary as sneezing. He might object or much worse, but now the image looks so good, you no longer care about the consequences and you push the button, while hoping not to push his…

Street Photography © Matt Weber

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), Men of New York, signs, Subway

“Wake Me When It’s Over!”

I was driving through Philadelphia in 1995, delivering a package for a messenger company when on the radio, the announcer said “#2 Derek Jeter” for the first time. His Yankee debut had been talked about for quite some time and he was considered a can’t miss prospect. All the experts were right. A scout for the Astros, Hal Newhouser quit the Astros when the owner decided to NOT draft Derek with the first pick in the draft. His selection was one of the easiest picks in sports history.

Despite all the great games and all the accomplishments that he has had the privilege of accomplishing in pinstripes, I hope he doesn’t play out his contract. After his 3,000 hits, unless he bounces back to hit at least .280 and with a touch of power, he should ride off into the sunset gracefully like very few athletes have done in the past. I’m not ready to write him off today, but he has to make it back to playing like a star and not hitting into a double play every time he comes to the plate. Some will say that we owe him at least that much after all he’s done for us. It’s hard to feel that way during a depression when many of us are scraping by and at 17 million dollars per year, Derek has become a “Punch & Judy” hitter. Anyway, I’m guessing he has sold more #2 jerseys than any athlete except Michael Jordan over the past fifteen years, and more than any baseball player ever has. The New York Yankees may owe him, but do we?

It’s been wonderful, but now it’s time to put up or shut up…

Update: He did have a game for the ages and went 5 for 5 getting his 3,000th hit with a solo shot off of David Price, a quality pitcher. I think the naysayers (myself included) will cut Derek a little slack for at least a few weeks…

Well, what can I say? He had an extremely productive year and had 213 hits! The guy is a force of nature and played much better than I ever imagined a 38 year old guy could…Live and learn.

Matt Weber (Street photography), Color, Men of New York, Portraits

“Bobby Long” 2010

I saw Bobby the other day and he’s not doing very well. I can tell you he’s had a rough life without exaggerating. He told me he was a photographer too once upon a time. He did recognize my M6 so I think he may have been telling me the truth. Something went terribly wrong when he was much younger. Not that I know all the details, but he was incarcerated  forty years ago. It was the one of the last prisons you would want to be in 1971…He was in Attica when the shit hit the fan!

© Matt Weber

Matt Weber (Street photography), Men of New York, Old New York, signs

West 42d Street 1988

Anyone who lived in New York back in the 1980s remembers this giant painting of “The Doctor”. Yes, the ’80s were a time when the Mets ruled New York. Many younger fans jumped aboard and I can’t blame them. The Yankees were suffering from Steinbrenner’s miserly years, when he colluded with other owners and tried to halt the giving out of huge contracts, which of course was his doing in the first place. Meanwhile the Mets had the two best young players in the game…Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden. As a Yankee fan I had to concede that the Mets were better. This trivial nonsense matters little to most people, but to diehard baseball fans, it was torture! I think Kevin Walsh of Forgotten New York will appreciate this photograph or at least I hope so. The Wilpon /Madoff fiasco is making it rather hard to be a Met fan these days. Maybe the young stockbroker who bought into the Mets will turn out to be their knight in shining armor…

Street Photography © Matt Weber