It was a beautiful sunny afternoon in late May – perfect for a photo outing. For most of the late winter and early spring, I had been shooting street portraits, mostly on 35mm, mostly on 50mm lenses. To change things up and keep it fresh, I decided to take out my Hasselblad, but use it more like I would my M3 – loose and fast and handheld. This meant stripping down my medium format kit into ‘street’ mode – my Hasselblad 503CW strapped over my shoulder with it’s smallest, fastest lens – the Zeiss Planar 80mm f2.8, a spare film back in one of the pockets of my reporter’s vest, and a half dozen rolls of 120 film in another pocket, and a Sekonic 398 incident meter in yet another pocket. No tripod, no bag, no spare lenses, nothing extra to weigh me down or slow me down.
The nexus of Manhattan’s East & West Villages is, for me, one the most fertile grounds for interesting street portraiture in New York City. It may be the presence of a major university (NYU), it may be the music venues and cool shops, it may be the Bohemian history of those neighborhoods going back over 100 years, but I can’t think of coming home from that part of town ’empty handed’ when it comes to cool images and memorable interactions. And on good days it can be a non stop parade of great shots of fascinating people. My first subject was Kyota, a young man who works at Search & Destroy, an Iggy Pop inspired vintage clothing boutique on St. Marks Place.
Kyota was quiet, but cool and friendly and didn’t mind me taking a little series from different distances and angles. I think he looks great on Portra 160, and I’m very pleased with my recently acquired late model 80mm f2.8 CFE Planar lens. I had upgraded after my 50 year old Hasselblad OG” C model Planar went into the shop for the third time in two years.
Next I grabbed some shots of Walker, a very nice young man I ran into in Tompkins Square Park. His style caught my eye, it looked a bit like a cross between contemporary fashion and utilitarian work wear. Perhaps something someone from one of the higher echelons of some dystopian future world like Fritz Lang’s Metropolis or 1984 might wear, or maybe someone in a Kraftwerk tribute band…
After reloading to some Portra 400, a little jam session of park musicians caught my ear. I approached them and asked if I could take some shots while they played. They were happy for me to shoot, but the guitarist and ringleader of the group wasn’t going to be bothered to pay any attention to me while he played. I’ve seen him in the park before with his two full sized bulldogs; he tends to hold court on the same bench just about every time I go to the park.
During this series, the little impromptu pick up group were playing Nirvana’s Come As You Are, which felt like it really suited the vibe on the park bench welcoming anyone who showed up with an instrument or a voice go join in. The ukulele player was moderately more cooperative with the camera, but still more focused on the music than the photography.
Sasha, however, was interested in the presence of a Hasselblad. She knew the famous camera and was happy to engage with the lens in a way the jamming musicians were not.
I loved Sasha’s classic punk styling complete with shredded T shirts, and crazy eye make-up worthy of the Bromley Contingent. And Sasha didn’t mind playing to the camera. At all…
In my early days of shooting portraits of strangers I met out and about, I was too shy to take more than one or two photos. I wasn’t confident in my photography and I worried about taking up too much of their time. Now I’m more relaxed and find myself taking more and more photos of people when I can sense they are open to it. I’ve also learned to ‘read the room’ and have a sense of when it’s cool to keep shooting and when it’s time to move on. Having found a cooperative model in Sasha, who had a super distinctive and fun look, we rolled into a series, swapping between color and b&w.
I love this close up of Sasha and the play of shadow and light and the texture and details of her clothing and jewelry and her glitter make-up. Oh, and her attitude just oozes out of this shot, and makes it one of my favorite portraits.
I encountered this woman who has a persona, “Angel Eyedealism” that she goes by for cabaret performances around the neighborhood. She has been living the life going back to the postpunk No Wave era of the early 1980’s and is still making a go of it. She was fun and funny, but I didn’t feel like I was quite finished shooting Sasha, who had a magnetic appeal for the lens.
While I was reloading, Sasha had spotted a friend and they huddled under a tree to share a smoke and some beer. They let me keep shooting, but Sasha was starting to move on.
I got a close up of Sasha’s friend, and it was all about smoking — he held that pose with the cigarette for a good 5-10 seconds while I fiddled and focused the Hasselblad. I think the ‘blad works well for street portraits and Sasha and her friend look awesome, but I don’t think it’s ever going to be as quick as shooting with an M3.
By this time, Sasha was more or less tuned out of the spontaneous photo session and I felt it was time to move on after this last shot. But I’m glad I got it. I love the nonchalance of two punky NYC Bohemians hanging out in the park under a tree and Sasha’s ‘can’t be bothered’ insouciance that is just studied enough to connect with the lens.
Heading back west on St. Marks Place, I ran into this gentleman who was taking selfies in front of a true rock ‘n roll landmark, the building on the cover on Led Zeppelin’s landmark 1975 double album, Physical Graffiti, probably their last truly great album when they were all still at the peak of their powers. I hadn’t known that building was in NYC until this fellow told me. I asked him for a shot and told him to ‘be’ Jimmy Page. He struck and awesome pose and broke it before I was ready with the Hasselblad. When I asked him to do it again, he didn’t quite hit it with the same vigor and energy. But I still like the shot with the juxtaposition of a man in his own spotlight against a backdrop of genuine NYC graffiti and trash waiting to be picked up, old school NYC urban grit that no amount of gentrification will eliminate.
I asked him to do a Robert Plant, and this is was the best I could get, with him blocking a good bit of his face with his air microphone. He definitely was not as easy to direct as Sasha and kind of dismissed me after a couple of shots.
After Google confirmed that the gentleman was indeed correct that 98 St. Marks is the cover image, I decided to grab a shot of the facade. With the 80mm I couldn’t shoot head on, so had to move down the street a bit to get more than the first floor or so. Some day I’ll come back with a wider lens, but even from this raking angle it is recognizably the same building. It hasn’t changed much in the last 50 years.
Working my way back to the F Train, I walked through another favorite place for street portraits, Washington Square Park. While the light was starting to drop especially under the canopy of trees on the park’s pathways, this beautifully dressed young woman caught my eye and I had to ask for a photo. She spoke next to no English, but we managed to communicate our intentions well enough, although I framed out the tip of her toes — a not infrequent mistake of mine on on full length portraits.
I also got a ‘cowboy’ shot of this nattily dressed friend of hers. I’m not sure what the occasion was, but they both looked pretty sharp.
It turns out they were part of a group of friends visiting from China. I got a group shot, medium close up. They looked great and very nicely put together. They reminded me a bit of all the smart looking Chinese people I met in Iceland, except dressed in very elegant and expensive urban party wear instead of very elegant and expensive winter hiking gear.
I also got a full-length group shot, this time managing to get everyone’s feet into the frame. Without a great deal of common English I managed to give the young woman on the far left my instagram handle. I hope they liked the photos!
I ran into my friend, the celebrated indie film director Ira Sachs (second from the right) and grabbed a group shot of him and his family.
My last shot of the day was Gabe, a photographer who frequently sets up his Linhof 4×5 and sells instant photos to people in the park. He’s a lovely guy and part of a fraternity of street photographers I run into frequently. We all follow each other on Instagram, and I think I might be a member of that fraternity myself now.
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