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

“Smoke while you can” 2010

I could go on a long diatribe about how much I despise the new smoking law that Mayor Bloomberg is about to impose on New Yorkers, but I won’t. He may have changed the law to get re-elected a third time, but the people spoke, and he’s our mayor. You get what you vote for. I’d like to see a park ranger try to issue a $50+ ticket to these two fellas…

All Photos © Matt Weber

Matt Weber (Street photography), Portraits, Subway

NYC 2010

Because of my switch to color film, I found myself staring at twenty rolls of black & White film for the past six months. I’m not a complete fool. I know that even if I’m having fun with color, the black & White stuff has to be processed. I never believed that Winogrand waited a year to develop all his film. He shot so much that a huge backlog was inevitable. When he photographed that guy with the broken glasses and blood streaming down his face, at a Vietnam protest, I think there’s a good chance that he wanted to see those frames that same night…Who knows. I’m not use to finding image after image, which I have no recollection of.

This is one of those pictures from last April…

All Photos © Matt Weber

Matt Weber (Street photography), Color, Uncategorized

“The Fun Lovin Criminals”

I’ve never done much commercial work, but I’m glad that I was able to supply photos to this band. I don’t normally listen to rap or hip hop, but this band wasn’t easy to label. Huey plays guitar and is the main vocalist. If Eminem or JayZ had huey’s skill on the guitar, they’d be even more famous and rightfully so. I never figured out why “The Fun Lovin’ Criminals” were unable to make it in a big way here in America. They did much better in Europe and I guess the British still know their music…

All Photos © Matt Weber

Matt Weber (Street photography), Color, Coney Island

Coney Island 2010

Black & white looks pretty good when included in a color image…I guess it’s harder to include some color in a black & white photo without cheating…Soon Adobe will come out with a program eliminating the need for photography. It will plug into a database of several trillion stock photos and create whatever you ask it to…Seriously, I was thrilled to find four people with B & W in this image. Some would say why bother when you could reassemble four people from separate pictures in Photoshop. This type of work is apparently called “Post Modern Street Photography” and is considered a fresh new approach to an old worn out type of photography. I don’t agree, but I’m usually way too nostalgic for the past and I guess I’m missing the boat again…

Matt Weber (Street photography), Old New York, Times Square

“The Deuce” 1985

This is one of the first pictures I took that has some historical significance. Driving across “The Deuce” in my taxi, I was still 26 years old. That’s half a lifetime ago. I would probably have had my doors locked and been fairly alert, as the block was loaded with some pretty scary people. Now a quarter century later, the block is clean and almost safe for the tourists 24 hours a day. I want to lament the changes, but when I remember how bad the place was, I have to admit that nostalgia can even make us miss a cesspool like the old 42d Street. I was threatened several times, not for taking anyone’s picture, but merely for carrying a camera down that block. Fifteen year old prostitutes and their pimps were nothing but sad, and people selling fake drugs didn’t make me think “The Deuce” was where it was at. It’s just now, many years later that the new sterile version has made many of us wish for the days, when not being mugged on “The Deuce” was a major accomplishment…

© Matt Weber