Matt Weber (Street photography), Color, Kids & Teens

Riverside Park 2011

When I took this picture in Riverside Park, I had just finished smoking a small but succulent cigar with my friend Dave Beckerman, a talented photographer, who had recently given up smoking cigarettes. When I was a teenager like these kids, I would have to keep my eyes peeled for cops, if I were to smoke something. As of today, mayor Bloomberg has imposed a new anti-smoking law which many feel is unfair, and others are celebrating. I don’t want kids to start smoking cigarettes and cigars are too strong for most kids and most women. They are either loved or loathed by all. I haven’t done shit worth spouting about, but plenty of older men have been sitting on a park bench and enjoying their tobacco for decades. Many of them served in the second world war or Korea. Others Vietnam. Most have paid their dues one way or another, and deserve the pleasure of sitting in the park and puffing their stinky cigars and deadly cigarettes, while they read their newspapers. I think that if one occasionally smells a whiff of tobacco in the air, they will most probably be no worse for the wear. Now for the first time in decades, I will have to break the law if I want to smoke a cigar, and I don’t like it… Very few people like cigar smoke, so very few will feel a bit of concern for my plight. That’s cool. I may not deserve sympathy, but the oldtimers do…

All Photos © Matt Weber

Matt Weber (Street photography), Kids & Teens

“The Getaway!” 2010

Something’s going on, but I’m not sure what. Maybe they helped their friend, (In a nightgown with sneakers untied) escape from a hospital. Maybe he was just grounded for a few weeks. Most of the buildings on the upper west side have a second door in the kitchen which leads to a staircase for fires and emergencies. I had to use that door on occasion when I was their age to make my getaway. Maybe the kid in the gown is texting his parents and apologizing for his escape, just moments after having fled the coop…

 

© Matt Weber

Matt Weber (Street photography), Kids & Teens, Men of New York, Old New York

Columbus Ave. 2006

All of us “Eisenhower Babies” are getting old. Soon we’ll be like him. This guy probably served in WW II and now has to navigate through a gauntlet of punks just to go shopping. How do I know they are punks? Every third word that they utter is NIGGER. Most of them aren’t even black and it’s their favorite word by miles. I know that I didn’t grow up in Washington Heights where many of them live, but 40 years ago, this neighborhood wasn’t the yuppy filled place that is now. We knew enough about history not to throw around the “N” word…I’d hope that gangster culture as attractive as it for the young ones of today, gives way to a more peaceful and less angry attitude…

All Photos © Matt Weber