New York City – Documentary Shooters

1950s, New York City, Photography

INGE MORATH

December 22, 2022 No Comments

USA. New York. Manhattan. 1957. A Llama in Time Square.©Inge Morath/MAGNUM PHOTOS

Inge Morath was born in Graz, Austria, in 1923. After studying languages in Berlin, she became a translator, then a journalist and the Austrian editor for Heute, an Information Service Branch publication based in Munich. All her life Morath would remain a prolific diarist and letter-writer, retaining a dual gift for words and pictures that made her unusual among her colleagues.
Morath was invited to join Magnum photo agency in 1953 at the invitation of reknowned photojournalist Henri Cartier-Bresson. She married playwright Arthur Miller in 1962 and remained his wife until her passing in 2002.

CONTACT SHEET FROM HER SHOOT:

USA. New York City. 1957. A Llama in Time Square.

FOR MORE: https://www.ingemorath.org/

Joy, Urban, Women

LITTLE ITALY BABE SISTERS

March 29, 2022 No Comments

Little Italy Babe Sisters, NYC, 2000

Photo and text by Bruce Berman
(Disclaimer on this post’s title: Spare me, I don’t care!)

In the middle of chaos, glory! Three sisters. Puerto Ricaños. Read their personalities! It’s right there. Happy. Proud. Sexy. Confident. Even the waiter is having fun. A lazy wandering day, sitting at a street cafe in Little Italy at a tiny round table, slurping Italian Ices, with friends, Abraham Verghese and Irene Connelly, heading to the U.S. Open. Happy day for me, tennis, before the political deluge of now.
Photography works in a lot of ways but the best of all is memory.

Bullets, Crime, New York City

BULLET HOLE

June 17, 2019 No Comments

Police investigate damage done by a gunshot, shooter unknown, photograph by Burt Glinn, 1954. Magnum Photos.

African-American, Culture, Documentary Photography, Uncategorized

ROY DeCARAVA: SHOOT WHAT YOU KNOW

July 9, 2018 No Comments

Roy DeCarava was one of the most influential documentary photographers of the 1950s-1960s. He was known more for the simplicity and ordinariness of his work than for it being spectacular or showy. His particular importance was photographing the Black community of his native Harlem and for the jazz scene of the era.

For a more thorough descrtiption of DeCarava’s work check out the always insightful Claire O’Neil’s essay at: https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2009/10/decarava.html

America, Documentary Photography, New York City, Photojournalism, Street Photography

STANLEY KUBRICK’S NEW YORK PHOTOGRAPHS

May 12, 2016 No Comments

Changing the Tire, Photograph by

Stanley Kubrick, 1946, for Look Magazine

Not many people think of Stanley Kubrick as a still photographer. After all, the creator of such monumental classics as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dr. Strangelove and Lolita is etched in our brain as the grand American cinematic auteur.

But, even before all that, he was roaming the streets of New York City, grabbing life as he knew it. He did assignments for major publications of that era, and apprenticed with and later became a staff photographer for LOOK magazine, one of the two giant picture magazine (the other being LIFE).

At LOOK he photographed such greats as Frank Sinatra and Erroll Garner to George Lewis, , Papa Celestin, Alphonse Picou, Muggsy Spanier, Sharkey Bonano, and many of the greatest jazz musicians of the New York scene. It wasn’t until 1948 that Kubrick took an interest in cinema after viewing films at the Museum of Modern Art’s film screenings.

For more on Kubrick: https://twistedsifter.com/2011/12/stanley-kubricks-new-york-photos-1940s/
and: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Kubrick