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

“The Last Days of the Bowery” 1986

bowery-bum-matt-weberI have mixed emotions about this picture. He came up to my cab looking for some money, which he got, but I felt compelled to take a picture of a man who had lost everything. I know he may have had a rough childhood and taken to the bottle at an early age, but I also can’t help but wonder if he had served his country many years earlier. If he was 60 when I took this picture, he would have been 18 in 1944. He could have seen things no one should have  in Europe or the South Pacific, and he certainly could have been old enough to have served in Korea. I realize it’s total conjecture, but I think many of the poor men who ended up on the Bowery, were at one point soldiers…

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

Automat Sign 1986

AUTOMAT-SIGN-MATT-WEBERI wish I had photographed this sign in Kodachrome, but I also wish the sign had been saved. Maybe it is in some museum…We all remember the Horn & Hardart’s which were all over town back in the old days, but the truth is, the food wasn’t very good! People rave about the pies but I think the “Delivery System” was what people are getting all misty over. Putting a few coins in the slot and then having your food’s little window open up, was all the fun, not eating the soggy tuna sandwich…

This image can be purchased for little more than a slice of cheesecake…

©Matt Weber

Matt Weber (Street photography), Old New York, Urban Landscape

The New York Cancer Hospital 1986

cancer-hospital-nyc-matt-weberFor over a quarter century, this old building sat vacant, except for a few homeless people who camped there. Fortunately the landmarks commission saved the building which has forty foot wide circular towers. Apparently Teddy Roosevelt’s throat cancer had a lot to do with the building being built. Cancer was finally being recognized as a major issue, and the building served those afflicted till 1955 when it found modern facilities elsewhere, as Sloan Kettering…

©Matt Weber