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

NYC 2005

I don’t remember if I liked this movie very much. The habit or practice of photographers placing people next to posters, goes back a very long time. Brassai & HCB both did it in the 1930s and others have been doing it ever since. Bourke White’s view of poor black people lined up under the giant billboard proclaiming how great America was for happy white people, is probably the best example of it working in a way that isn’t just funny. Street photography offers these juxtapositions on occasion and it is very hard to pass on them…I suppose I should work on suppressing the urge when it overcomes me…then again, maybe not.

All Photos © Matt Weber

Matt Weber (Street photography), Urban Wildlife

Central Park 1996

I like shooting infrared film, but it’s tricky and expensive stuff to work with. I only tried it a few times, but maybe down the road I’ll shoot some more…Having this Egret appear and do that thing it does with its leg, made this picture much better I think. There are actually more than Goldfish in the lake. Someone told me there are Carp as well, which is probably what this regal bird was waiting for…

All Photos © Matt Weber

Matt Weber (Street photography), PROTESTS, signs

“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

Matt Weber (Street photography), Urban Landscape

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