I should have bought a Checker cab when I had a chance. Everybody loved them, even if they were just a bucket full of loose bolts…
All Photos © Matt Weber
Harlem 1986
I’ve always liked Orange cats. I’m not sure why, but they have always liked me too…
All Photos © Matt Weber
Harlem 1987
A cat named Joe Sap once sold me a Blue Doberman many years ago. I named her Vicious. I tried bringing her with me in my taxi, but when passengers got in, she would peer over into the backseat and scare the hell out of them…I gave her away because it was cruel to leave her alone for twelve hour shifts…
All Photos © Matt Weber
“A Tree Grows in Manhattan” 1987
All Photos © Matt Weber
East Houston Street 1988
All Photos © Matt Weber
President Reagan 1986
I could go on and on about how much I loathed this man, but I won’t…
All Photos © Matt Weber
“Faded Beauties” 1989
All Photos © Matt Weber
Nude Study 1988
All Photos © Matt Weber
LOVE 1987
All Photos © Matt Weber
“Semper Fi” 1988
Somewhere in Brooklyn I found this dilapidated billboard and I guess you could say that this was taken in “Peacetime”…The cold war was on the verge of ending and it had been quite some time since the troops left Vietnam…Just three years later George Bush the first would start the last conventional war in this country’s history. Unfortunately the end of war as it had been known for ages, would not be the end of war…
All Photos © Matt Weber
“The Champions” NYC 1988
All Photos © Matt Weber
“Marlboro Country” 1986
I found this gigantic billboard in terrible shape, took a few snaps and made some 8″x10″ prints…They came out of the Dektol looking quite nice. Maybe I should have photographed a Marlboro ad on the back of a magazine and then blown it up 8×10 feet! Alas, I always do things backwards. Such is life…
All Photos © Matt Weber
Times Sq. 1987
Marilyn Monroe had finally begun to lose her luster in 1987…
All Photos © Matt Weber
“Urban Chaos” 1985
Knowing how unskilled I was with a camera back in 1985, it’s pretty amazing to me that I took this picture. I could return today, a quarter century later and not take a better one…
All Photos © Matt Weber
“Closed Forever” 1987
I passed this store in Spanish Harlem plenty of times before I decided to photograph it. I wonder how many times some poor store owner closed those squeaky gates, hoping to keep the local scoundrels from breaking in and making off with his wares…
All Photos © Matt Weber
NYC 1999
Most of the 1990s were pretty lame years for me photographically. I struggled to take any images which made me feel like I was on a path that would lead anywhere. I was still shooting with a 50mm lens and thus I was always slightly detached from my subjects. Sometimes you have to really get stuck in order to move at all. I don’t know if you’ve ever had a bad stretch that seemed to last forever, but for me it was like “writer’s block” with a camera…
All Photos © Matt Weber
NYC 2000
All Photos © Matt Weber
“Wonderwoman” NYC 2002
The old saying “It’s a Man’s World” may not be as true as it once was…
All Photos © Matt Weber
Self Titled 1999
Somewhere in New Jersey…
All Photos © Matt Weber
“Dead End” Hastings on Hudson 1998
All Photos © Matt Weber
Harlem Family 1988
When I think how much it takes to raise one child, I am in awe of mothers, many single, who have to raise three, four or more…
All Photos © Matt Weber
“Anti-Crack Mural” Spanish Harlem 1988
During tough times people find a way to express their sorrow in artistic ways. Heroin had been the main drug trade in this area for years, and then the crack plague made things even worse!
All Photos © Matt Weber
Park Ave. 1989
This picture is one of my most popular images, even with people who’ve never smoked a single cigarette…
All Photos © Matt Weber
Black and White Street Photographs of New York City by Matt Weber 