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

Fear & Loathing in New York

reagan-aids-protest-matt-weber-nycWatching the HBO movie, “The Normal Heart” brought back a lot of very sad memories last night. Like most New Yorkers, I lost friends and I remember the fear which the virus caused many of us to feel. I recall how badly some people behaved including many from the right. The comments I’d hear in the back of my cab or see written on walls were sickening. There was a shortage of sympathy, and as usual a handful of people made a huge difference in fighting for those who couldn’t fight for themselves…

©Matt Weber

Matt Weber (Street photography), America, Uncategorized

NYC 1991

Magic-Johnson-AIDS-matt-weberI remember well how I felt back in ’91 when I heard the news. Magic was as lovable an athlete as any I’d had the privilege of watching. In 1991 the disease was still a virtual death sentence.

I knew an “Ambulance Chaser” once and was not surprised to read that Donald Sterling began his career in that line of work…There’s nothing else I can say that hasn’t already been said about Mr. Tokowitz, except that he is an embarrassment for most human beings and should slither away into his tiny hole, I meant huge mansion and die…

©Matt Weber

Matt Weber (Street photography), Graffiti-NYC Tags, Urban Landscape

“Up against the wall mutha fukka” 1990

When I took this picture in Riverside park they had finally painted the handball court’s wall. It had been covered with vintage graffiti by the local legends Barbara & Eva 62 who I’m guessing came from the Amsterdam projects just a few blocks away. There had even been a few Sharks & Jets tags from the 1960’s which were paying homage to the movie “West Side Story” Oh well…

Then I met this guy Frank, who was Irish and had bright Orange hair. He hung around the 79th Street boat basin with a couple of old-timers. They were gay and Frank was 66 years old. I always do the math in my head to know how old someone was in 1945 in order to surmise whether or not they might have served in World War II. I asked him where and what he did during the war. He said he was on the USS Missouri which fought in the Pacific. He had to load the sixteen inch guns and described handling these giant cartridges of gunpowder, knowing that if there ever was a problem, he’d be dead before he knew what hit him. When I heard he had died of AIDS soon thereafter, there was something very unsettling about a guy who’d risked everything for our country just withering away prematurely…

All Photos © Matt Weber