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
The old saying “It’s a Man’s World” may not be as true as it once was…
All Photos © Matt Weber
When I took this picture and named it “Incoming” for obvious reasons, I never expected it to become prophetic. If I do an exhibit, the temptation to place this image before the pictures I took on 9/11 is fairly strong. I don’t know if I want to post my pictures of the massacre. I realize that they are the most historically significant pictures I am likely to take. There’s something very strange about fielding compliments about pictures that had such terrible content. I have had to print certain images from that day, and stuck alone in my darkroom, I sometimes get overwhelmed.
I lost a close friend because of September 11th. He thought that we got what we deserved that day. I am well aware of our country’s past and I am very ashamed of certain parts of our history, but…
September 11th was not a MILITARY battle ending in victory for the demented “jihaders”, it was a fuckin’ massacre, plain and simple…
All Photos © Matt Weber
Time waits for no one…
All Photos © Matt Weber
There are few pictures which didn’t make it into my book which I wish had, but each page cost almost $500 and decisions such as this were unavoidable…
All Photos © Matt Weber
This a scan from an old print and I hope to rescan it soon. This is a picture which for some reason jumped out at me when I found it in an old folder…I think this was taken on the lower east side…
All Photos © Matt Weber
These stray dogs were acting like alley cats when I saw them up on this abandoned building’s ledge in Harlem…
All Photos © Matt Weber
I was cruising Pelham Parkway in the Bronx when I saw these poor horses in their prison cells. I feel like horses are the last animal I want to see confined to a tiny cubicle, cause they have always represented freedom to me as much as any eagle…Of course I know nothing about horses and they may feel much safer in their tiny rooms…
All Photos © Matt Weber
All Photos © Matt Weber
All Photos © Matt Weber
I was shooting up the FDR late one day around dusk when I spotted a small phalanx of vintage limos cruising ahead 0f me. I lingered until my favorite building appeared momentarily, and then I snapped this picture at 55 MPH…
All Photos © Matt Weber
I took this a week after the Rodney King riot in LA…
All Photos © Matt Weber
All Photos © Matt Weber
All Photos © Matt Weber
All Photos © Matt Weber
I am using twenty year old titles because they had some relevance when I titled them and I suppose that the original impetus to title an image still has some significance, when looking at it many years later. After all, everything changes in New York, and the last yuppie was seen on September 10th 2001…After that we all became just New Yorkers again…
Right? Or is that just wishful thinking?
All Photos © Matt Weber
This is one of those pictures which didn’t make the book, but it still reminds me of how dangerous Central Park was twenty some odd years ago. These toddlers were running towards the woods uptown where the famous jogger attack took place. Ah, the good old days…
All Photos © Matt Weber
This was a large display of art with the message to the kids of Harlem, that you should have ‘Higher Goals” than the NBA…because that’s never gonna happen, you can’t be like Mike…so stay in school!
All Photos © Matt Weber
Cutting class and going down to “The Deuce” was a rite of passage for several generations of kids…I guess it’s better now since Times Sq. has been cleaned up, but there are some who would disagree…
All Photos © Matt Weber
I was standing on my stoop with a big Pentax 6×7 when I saw this guy crossing the street. Bang the shutter clapped loudly and at that exact moment, he spun halfway around suddenly as if he’d been shot!
All Photos © Matt Weber
I rarely think about which of my pictures I like the most, but if I did, I’m pretty sure this picture would be in my top ten. It was well after midnight and this poor guy (or woman) was just trying to stay warm on a bitter February night…
All Photos © Matt Weber
Waiting for a red light to change almost a quarter of a century ago, I snapped a frame which couldn’t have been much better…
All Photos © Matt Weber
For different reasons, people have always loved this picture…
All Photos © Matt Weber
Joe was a native American who drank too much and picked St. Marks Place as his main spot. I don’t know if he’s still alive as I haven’t seen him in probably ten years or so…
All Photos © Matt Weber
Black and White Street Photographs of New York City by Matt Weber 