Matt Weber (Street photography), Coney Island

Coney Island 2010

I saw the negative and it reminded me of someone else’s picture. Maybe at this point in time, 99% of what I shoot is bound to look familiar. Even then, each image is a new document or “piece of art” despite being almost an exact replica of another artist’s efforts. Even worse, many of the pictures I take are doppelgangers of my own…

That said, I like this image regardless of all the nonsense I just sputtered.

All Photos © Matt Weber

Matt Weber (Street photography), Harlem, Urban Wildlife

“Across 110th Street” 1972

In 1972 I was a fourteen year old kid studying art (oil painting) with an old Russian couple who lived in a tenement on 110th St. Nicolai Abracheff was a contemporary of Picasso and also an early cubist. I was still dabbling with photography. This was one of the last rolls of film I would shoot, with one exception for the next 12 years…

1972 was also the year that the film “Across 110th Street” was produced.

All Photos © Matt Weber

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

Central Park 2010

I tried to describe this picture to a friend of mine, but sometimes the essence of a photo is lost in translation. I was struck by the fact that this woman, who was clearly on her last legs was every bit as happy as the young kids who have their entire lives to look forward to. They were watching a juggling clown perform his tricks. I see too many old people sitting around this town waiting to die, and found this scene refreshing…

All Photos © Matt Weber

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