Matt Weber (Street photography), Portraits, Women of New York

Linda 1996

Linda had had a hard life…She would be the first to admit that she made some bad choices along the way. Once upon a time, she was a nice little Jewish girl like any other kid. Then the street took a toll on her in a big way. Her family gave up on her and she was homeless for many years. Recently a social worker got her on her feet again and she has a little cottage in rural New Jersey. She misses all the people she knew in New york, but also knows that the old “monkey on her back” might become a problem if she spends to much time haunting these streets again…

All Photos © Matt Weber

Matt Weber (Street photography), Men of New York, Portraits, The Urban Prisoner

Herman R.I.P. 1995

All Photos © Matt Weber

This is how I want to remember Herman Markowitz. Smiling and being a sweet old man. When he was released from the concentration camp, he weighed less than ninety pounds. As you can see he was well built. He said he was a talented wrestler, and he was very strong into his seventies. In 1956 he moved into a 3d floor studio apartment on West 86th Street. His rent was $56 per month! When he died in 2007, his rent had climbed to $218 per month. He spent his working years in a factory in Jersey working a lathe and stamping metal pieces for who knows what. He had one close call with falling in love back in the sixties, but it didn’t work out. I should have taped our conversations. The stories he told me about being stuck in a Nazi work camp during the war, will fuck me up till the day I die…

Matt Weber (Street photography), Portraits, The Urban Prisoner, Women of New York

Starbucks 1996

This was the first Starbucks on the upper west side and they actually closed a couple of years ago, because a bank outbid them for their lease! I remember that I was mired in one of the worst creative slumps of my life and probably hadn’t taken a picture that I really liked in well over a year. When this one came out of the tray, I recall being extremely relieved…

All Photos © Matt Weber

Matt Weber (Street photography), homeless, Portraits, The Urban Prisoner

Chuck/Lisa R.I.P. Christmas 1998

Chuck also was known as Lisa. He wished he was a she. I remember watching him shoot some dope in my local subway station once as I waited for the train. Despite the fact that I was shooting for a subway book, due to personal reasons I couldn’t take the shot of  Chuck and his needle. I have no problem taking pictures of junkies nodding, because I’ll show a collection to my kid one day in the hope that it might be a deterrent of sorts. Maybe it’s like the war photographer who can shoot piles of dead bodies, but when faced with a chance to record a firing squad at work, is unable to steady the camera…Maybe not.

Matt Weber (Street photography), Coney Island, Portraits

Dave Beckerman 2008

Dave Beckerman is responsible for this website almost as much as I am. He has helped me at all hours of the day with my troubleshooting and with even the smallest details. He is quite an interesting character too. He gave up financial security as a computer programmer and decided to try and survive off of the sales of his photographs. That takes balls! Anyway, Dave has also had many phases during his photographic career. He’s done large format and then tried medium format when he wanted more flexibility. Then he went through his Leica phase which is an important one, before slipping into the evil world of 0s & 1s (that’s digital) He also had an infrared period during which he did an amazing amount of high quality work with the hard to process films. He liked it so much he had a camera & flash converted to shoot infrared only. (I think he’s holding the set up in this picture) Then of course he switched back to a Leica and film for a year or so, before finally deciding that his love of those pesky 0s & 1s was too great. Even though he’s digitally evolved, he fluctuates between shooting color and black & white…has also had a brief affair with HDR digital and the only phase that he hasn’t gone through yet, is a “Minox moment”. Dave has written about his addiction to buying cameras and he’s owned a lot more than I have. His writing is funny and also serious depending on his mood. He deserves the success which he’s had and plenty more…

All Photos © Matt Weber