Humans of New York

Brandon Stanton is on a mission: He wants to find every interesting person in the city, and take their photograph.

And he's on his way. He currently has nearly 1,400 portraits on his website — Humans of New York.

Here's his mission statement:

Humans of New York is a multi-year project to construct a photographic census of the city of New York. The team consists of one man, who walks the streets several hours a day, looking for interesting people, and taking their photograph. Currently, the project is in the gathering phase. The goal is 10,000. Photos are uploaded as they are collected, and arranged by date. When a substantial body of portraits has been gathered, they will be grouped by neighborhood and displayed geographically. Upon completion, an interactive map will show every neighborhood in New York through the faces of its inhabitants.

So far, he has taken plenty of photos in the East Village, including:

The site also includes accompanying stories. Yesterday, he had photos of a traveler on St. Mark's Place named Rancid and her dog Riot. You can find her story here.

I asked Brandon about taking photos in the East Village compared to other parts of the city.

"Anywhere in the East Village is an easy day. The general rule is: 'Anyone who is out to be seen, is willing to be photographed.' Beautiful girls, fashionistas, artists — they love to be seen," he says. "The farther you get from the artistic and high-fashion crowd, the more resistance you run into. In the East Village, I probably get about 90 percent of the portraits I ask for. Somewhere like Bedford-Stuyvesant, that number drops below 50 percent.

"I do tend to value the portraits from rougher neighborhoods more, because they are harder to obtain, and rarer. But whenever I get rundown, its back to the East Village for a breather."

Find more at Humans of New York here.

[All photos by Brandon Stanton. Reprinted with permission]

I woke up dreaming

I'm please to post some streetscenes captured by East Village resident Clotilde Testa. They were all taken around the neighborhood with a 1959 Lubitel 2 camera.

For more on Clo, please visit here.

[Headline inspiration via]

High noon on Avenue A

...on such a winter's day... photo courtesy of jdx ... see more here.

The trihawk on Avenue A

The following photos were taken by EV Grieve reader Gudron Georges, a New York-based photographer. These three photos and more can be found on her photo blog.

The photography of Cary Conover

I've always liked the photography of East Village resident Cary Conover, a freelancer whose work has appeared in the Voice and the Times ... and starting tonight, you can catch his work at Lunasa, 126 First Avenue (between Seventh Street and St. Marks Place).



The exhibition is the latest in the Lunasa Photo Series, which is a curated program of photography exhibitions. This show features one print from each of the last 10 years that Cary has lived here. The opening is from 6-9 p.m., and the exhibit will remain up indefinitely.

Cary, an avid pool player, also has a billiards-dedicated site called Bank the Nine. Here's a nifty piece he assembled titled, A Night at Sophie's, Part III, where he captures some the the bar's pool-playing characters:

A Night of Pool at Sophie's, Part III from Cary Conover on Vimeo.

Next month, Cary and his family are moving to Kansas where he will teach photojournalism at a Wichita High School. (Here's a Q-and-A with Cary from yesterday in Street Reverb Magazine).

Cary fielded a question from me yesterday on his way to Lunansa:

How has New York City as a photographer's canvas evolved since you've been shooting here?

It's noticeably more touristy and people are more tech-savvy. I remember when the red double decker tourist buses showed up, I feel like it was 2002 or so. I always felt odd being watched as one would pass by. Technology has made a mark, too. The digitization of everything, brightly lit cell phone screens, video advertisements on top of taxis, the ubiquitous white earphone cords. Don't even get me started on the last one...I used to scoff (and this dates me), "What, you can't leave your home without your Norah Jones?" Same is true of coffee shops, it's a room full of people on laptops, all plugged into the same power outlet strip. I think of Bowery and Houston a lot, it's really changed in 10 years. There was always the mystique of that building north of Houston on Bowery, McGurk's Suicide Hall. You used to walk by a building and it would make you think about the past. I don't feel like that happens so much anymore.

The photography of John Marshall Mantel

I've only recently been introduced to the work of East Village resident John Marshall Mantel, a freelance photographer who shoots for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Here is a selection of his work that I like from his photo blog...

City of dreams, laundry

The Wall Street Journal has an item today on the new book "New York: Portrait of a City" (Taschen, 560 pages, $69.99). Per the WSJ:

"Erika Stone's 1947 photograph of a Lower East Side tenement's brick-wall exterior seems to capture New York at two extremes: city of dreams (as rendered by an outdoor advertiser, anyway) and city of laundry."

[Erika Stone/Katrina Doerner Photographs, Brooklyn]

Bob Arihood returns with Nadie Se Canoce

Good news for those of you who missed Bob Arihood's photography since he retired Neither More Nor Less back in May.... Bob is now posting photos, like the one of Donna above, at Nadie Se Canoce. (Thanks to Melanie for first bringing us this news.)

The photography of Flo Fox

A friend recently introduced me to the work of acclaimed photographer Flo Fox... I asked her via Facebook if I could post a few of her photos from the 1970s and early 1980s in NYC... she agreed... and here's a sampling...








All this is even more remarkable given her background... Fox, who grew up in Woodside, Queens, was born blind in one eye.

Here's an excerpt on her from a profile in Alternative Photography:

According to her, she was an automatic photographer because she never needed to close an eye to take a picture. She lost the vision in her other eye in 1975 and was declared legally blind just at the time that she photographed herself nude for Playboy and Penthouse. It was at this time that one of Flo’s sisters was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Soon thereafter Flo began experiencing numbness in one of her hands and legs and had herself tested for MS. The results were positive. She has remained determined to not let this news change anything in her career as a fine arts photographer. This has not been easy with her direction in the medium which is predominately street imagery of people and places predominately set in New York City.

When asked how her disabilities have affected her work, Fox said that she started seeing interfering patterns in 1975 and soon thereafter could no longer focus on an image because of dead nerve endings. As her MS progressed, Flo’s muscle tone deteriorated and she went from using a cane to a motorized scooter.

Check out this interview on Tom Snyder...



You can watch part 2 here.

There are more photos on her website here. Or maybe you could friend her on Facebook.

An East Second Street now and then

Earlier today, I posted several photos from Brian Rose's new book on the Lower East Side from 1980 and today...

Thanks to EV Grieve reader AdamA for pointing out a pretty good Google Street View approximation of one of the photos...


East Second Street where it merges with Houston between Avenue C and Avenue D

And via Google... a Street View that is at least two years old... the corner of Houston and Avenue D has been razed. Still.



Previously on EV Grieve:
"A continuum of decay and rebirth" on the Lower East Side

"A continuum of decay and rebirth" on the Lower East Side

In 1980, Brian Rose, in collaboration with fellow Cooper Union graduate Ed Fausty, photographed the Lower East Side during what he called "its darkest, but most creative moment. While buildings crumbled and burned, artists and musicians came to explore and express the edgy quality of the place."

After the project was completed and exhibited in 1981, it remained unseen in Rose's archive. And Rose moved on, working on various projects while living in Amsterdam for 15 years.

Rose revisited the streets of the Lower East Side with his camera some three decades later. Rose has put together "Time and Space on the Lower East Side," a self-published book contrasting the LES in 1980 with today. However, as he notes in the book's description:

"From the outset it was clear that this would not be a simple before/after take on the neighborhood. While keeping an eye on the earlier photographs done in 1980, I wanted to rediscover the place with fresh eyes, with the perspective of time, change, and history. The result, still being added to, is a set of photographs that looks backward and forward, that posits the idea that places are not simply “then and now,” but exist in a continuum of decay and rebirth."

He told me that the project is still looking for a publisher and exhibition venue. In the meantime, the book is available for purchase on Blurb.

Rose shared a few of the 1980 images with me....



East Second Street where it merges with Houston between Avenue C and Avenue D



On East Fifth Street between C and D. Rose was standing near Fourth Street



On the Bowery looking north toward East Fifth Street — now JASA/Cooper Square Senior Housing and the Cooper Square Hotel



The Jefferson Theatre on 14th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue (now the Mystery Lot)


Details:

Brian Rose Photography

Preview and buy the book via Blurb.

Pool at Sophie's, 1988

Been awhile since we posted any photos by Michael Sean Edwards ... So! Here are a few from Sophie's circa 1988....




He has several more here on Flickr.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The East Village in photos from 1978-1985

Demer and Col on Second Avenue

Jim and Karla Murray have some great shots of Demer and Col creating a mural on the plywood outside Ninth Ward, the new bar opening on Second Avenue in the old Thai on Two place... From last night...



See all their photos here.

New York City in photos 1978-1985, take two or three

We posted our first set of photos by Michael Sean Edwards back on Feb. 10... Since then, Michael has been busy uploading more photos to his Flickr account from 1978-1985 (and one from 1988)... and thanks to Michael for letting us repost these...

Times Square subway station 1979:



147 Avenue A from 1984:



Cooper Square from 1980:



Avenue A near St. Mark's from 1984:



Avenue A near St. Mark's Place from 1984:



In a Seventh Street studio from 1978:



From 1988: And Michael could use some help identifying this intersection... he doesn't remember the location...



See his Flickr page here.

Kids in Action in Tompkins Square Park

The following photos displayed here in Tompkins Square Park today were taken during March-May 2009 by children who live in Chunchi, the Andean town in Ecuador...








Learn more about the project here.