All language subtitles for Everybody.Street.2013.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

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SINGER: I wonder why that is.

The paper boy
don't come no more.

JOES MEYEROWITZ
[VOICEOVER]: Why do

some photographers
go to the street,

and other photographers
go to a studio?

Some people want to
pretend it's a movie,

and other photographers walk
into the world and they say,

show me.

Those select few, through
time, who are willing to go out

into chaos with some
high hopes of interacting

with a moment where life will
become clarified for them.

They can welcome
ambiguity and surreal

aspects of this kind of chaos.

Even though it's
chaos, they will

have a moment of clarification.

[vibraphone playing]

JOEL MEYEROWITZ: I
was an art director

and Robert Frank
shot this job for me,

and it was so interesting,
I had never seen

a real photographer before.

He just was so physical
and he moved so agilely,

and he was balletic, and and he
kind of whispered to the girls

as he was photographing them.

And I left that
shoot two hours later

and I went out on the street
and suddenly everything

on the street was alive to me.

Someone waiting for a taxi,
two people hugging goodbye,

and I started saying, click,
click, click, in my mind.

And by the time I got back to
my office I knew I had to leave.

I walked into my
office, art director

said, how did the shoot go?

And I said, it was
great, I'm quitting.

And he said, why what
are you going to do?

I said, I want to
be a photographer.

And I remember he asked me
the crucial question he said,

do you have a camera?

I said, no I don't
have a camera.

He said, how are you
going to make pictures

if you don't have a camera?

And he opened his drawer, and
he handed me his camera, Pentax,

and he said, here, use this
until you get a camera.

So that for me
was the beginning.

I wandered the streets not
knowing what I was shooting.

I just knew I had to be
out there watching life

because I was interested in
the way people did things.

It seemed to me that's
what you photographed,

the instantaneous
gesture when somebody

made some kind of a motion,
or did something physical.

I think that part of
what you love when you're

a street photographer is
this kind of sensibility that

develops where you think you
understand something about, not

only the person
you're photographing,

or the group you're
photographing,

but the culture at large.

Responding to things,
and at the same time

you're learning what
they mean to you.

What does a gesture signify?

What does a certain kind of
person make you feel like?

You learn to deepen your
way of reading these signs.

It's the joy of the exchange.

Only I can identify
with them in this way.

So it's a way of
learning to read

your culture, which is, I
think, a great fascination

for photographers.

[camera snaps]

[camera snaps]

[camera snaps]

[camera snaps]

[techno music plays]

BOOGIE: I carry my camera
with me, at least one

camera with me, at all times.

You really never know when
something's going to happen.

It's like a Samurai.

But, you don't have time
to think, you just react.

I was born and raised
in Belgrade, Serbia.

It was amazing, you
know, because we grew

up in a perfectly safe society.

Then all of a sudden,
it just became terrible.

All of a sudden we had
war going on all around,

people were coming back from
the front lines half insane,

a lot of weapons,
crime was on the rise.

I think I started
to take pictures

of in the midst of the insanity,
of the chaos and sanctions.

Basically I tried to
preserve my sanity, you know,

because when you're
behind the camera

you're not a participant,
you're just an observer.

In 2003 I started shooting
these junkies and gangsters

in Bushwick, Bed-stuy.

What can they do to me?

They can kill me, so what?

Yeah.

I remember a couple
of times I was

in with some scary situations,
and my hands would shake

when I would change the roll.

My hands were
shaking, literally.

But then when I would
start shooting, no,

still, like a wolf, they
can't sense any fear.

And you can't fake that.

It's like, OK, she's sitting
on a toilet, shooting up,

and I'm standing on a bathtub
taking pictures, and I'm fine.

It's like, cold, no feeling.

For me it's becoming
what you're shooting.

We have to get into their heads.

My accent, I think, helps.

You know I don't sound
like anyone they hate,

and then in a way we develop
some kind of relationship.

Of course I was offered
crack many times,

one guy was like, hey man,
hey you want some crack?

Hey man, no, I have an
addictive personality,

I don't want to do it.

But crack is not addictive.

I'm like, come on man,
shut up, look at you.

He's like, yeah,
you're right man.

Gang kids, they
asked, hey Boogie,

would you like to take some
pictures of us with guns?

And I just couldn't
believe it was happening.

I'm like, yeah.

And then we are in the
hallway of the projects,

loading guns, bang, bang.

And it wasn't just about
taking pictures at that point,

it was just about being there.

You know this thing
like, there are lines

that shouldn't be crossed.

What are those lines?

The deeper you go, the
better pictures you'll take.

And it becomes like, the most
important thing in your life.

And it can ultimately
fuck you up, this trail.

I thought I would continue
the project in some way,

but it was just so depressing.

I would go there and I
couldn't recover for a week.

This chapter was
closed, it was over.

After the book was done I gave
it to some people over there.

They loved it.

I think they feel like they're
leaving something behind.

Same thing with
photographers, you

feel better knowing
that, I don't know,

in many years you
won't to be around,

but your book will still
be in some bookstore.

And someone will look at it.

And you feel like
you become immortal.

MAX KOZLOFF: People
with cameras who

want to photograph New York,
and do it kind of a justice

have a problem.

Here is a city where
everything happens almost,

it seems, at once.

Noise, movement, combustions,
energy, dissonance, danger.

New York photographers have
to take all those matters

into account to do some kind
of record that encompasses

a human setting, and
a cluster of variables

that defy imagination.

So it was no wonder that
a number of photographers

grew up taking
advantage of this,

what I call, volatile proximity
of citizens to each other.

It seems one will never catch
up if one does this in New York.

And that's what
advances the motivations

of everyone who tries it.

MARTHA COOPER: When I first
moved to New York, which

was in 1975, I got a job
with the New York Post,

and of course we
were shooting film.

And I had two cameras and
both cameras were loaded,

so I often had a lot
of film left over.

It just became my habit,
at the end of the day,

to cruise through alphabet city
on my way back to the post.

The Lower East Side
at the time was

a complete, like,
bombed out, war-zone.

Vast empty areas
and vacant lots.

What I learned when I
was studying anthropology

was definitely the point of
view I had when I was taking

pictures in New
York, which is sort

of an ethnographic
point of view,

as opposed to trying
to be an artist.

I'm not trying to do a kind
of investigative reporting

where I'm showing the evils
of landlords, for example.

I'm more about public space, and
how people are using the space,

and how people are
surviving, and how they're

using the raw materials that
become available when all

these buildings are torn down
to maybe build a little go-cart,

or build a little clubhouse.

And that was the sort of
thing I was looking for.

Anything this ephemeral
is like, wonderful subject

matter for a still photograph.

You know it's not going
to be around for long,

and in just less than a
second you can take a picture

and preserve it.

[funky organ playing]

One of the kids that
had been flying pigeons

showed me his little
book of drawings,

and that's how I
got into graffiti.

There were a handful of people
taking pictures of graffiti.

And if we hadn't been,
well then, a lot of it

would have been lost.

[bass and drums playing]

It looks as if every
car was covered

with this beautiful
graffiti, but in fact

you could and stand for five
hours and never even get one.

It was not easy to
catch those trains.

I mean I would wake up before
dawn, in the winter when it was

cold, and go up to the Bronx and
stand in a vacant lot for hours

just waiting for the
train to come by,

and sometimes nothing
would come by,

and I used to get
calls, Yo Martha,

we did a piece on the whatever.

MAN [ON RECORDING]:
[inaudible] on the six line,

bright colors, last lot
[inaudible] talking about,

Vice Boys, you know the crew.

MARTHA COOPER: For
me it was always

a matter of getting
the right background

with the right train.

I don't want to see
10 pictures of trains

with the same background.

So if you look at
subway art, you

won't see the same background,
because once I got a really

nice piece with a
really nice background

I would go find
another background,

stand in another vacant lot.

Bottom line is, you've captured
something that actually might

be of interest in the future.

And it's not until things are
gone that you realize that you

miss taking a picture of them.

JILL FREEDMAN: Hi guys.

How you doing?

Jesus.

Hard-ons aren't they?

Bunch of hard-ons.

CROWD: If you are a photographer

or you are videotaping
you have the right

to do so within a reasonable
distance of the police.

If the police ask
you to move back,

move back as little as possible.

You're interested
in photography?

I need to.

Well you know I
have an exhibition

of photographs on now.

Really, where is it?

Madison Avenue
between 65th and 66th.

Madison, 65th and 66th.

The show is called street cops.

It's from a book I
did that came out

in '81, nice precinct in
Midtown South, 30 years ago

when there were real cops.

[electric guitar plays]

I have never seen a
book about good cops.

I have seen books about the
bums, the crooks, the creeps.

I've always seen all
the bad behavior.

I have never seen a
book about a good cop,

and certainly not
photographs, and certainly not

showing what is the job.

Simply, what does it mean to
be a cop in New York City?

Well in the beginning I would
do a couple double tours, go

on a four to 12, do
that or maybe I'd

go a little into
midnight, and still

manage to miss the one time
they had a delivery of a baby.

Fell into the woman's
pantyhose, that's

why I had to be
in the first car,

if I got there a second
later, I didn't get the shot.

When I was doing the job
everybody didn't have a camera

and I worked on being invisible.

Although when I
first started, they

got some bad guy,
some malefactor,

and they were cuffing him
and putting him in a car,

and he said, get that
fucking bitch and a camera

away from me.

I thought, that's the least
of your problems, pal.

If they don't do the crime,
don't get your picture,

you know?

And shut the fuck
up furthermore.

Yeah they were afraid of
me, I'm a tough mother.

Fuckin' A they
were afraid of me.

Those are the perpetrators
who were cuffed,

and there's blood on the
floor, a pack of Pall-Malls,

in the blood, and the
[inaudible] I suppose,

is supposed to be [inaudible],
leaned over, came over

to the table, you
know because he

wanted to get in the picture.

And I was scared most of time,
you know, well, violence.

I want you to-- boom!

That's it, you're gone.

We ran to a thing,
the kid was shot

in the stomach with a shotgun.

The true color of violence,
not red like ketchup,

gray like dead.

And the book was
about that, this is

not a movie this is not the TV.

It's an honor to be able to make
a good photograph of anyone,

and it's a great privilege.

It's the only tool that
will stop time itself.

I majored in sociology
and cultural anthropology,

and I thought all I wanted to
do was get out into the world.

And I only realised
that that's what

I was doing with the camera.

So by the firemen again,
it was no question

that I'm going to run in like,
and do a journalism thing.

I wrote in the book,
they're like soldiers

and they will die
for someone else

or someone else's property.

They're not like soldiers,
they do not kill.

They bring life, not death.

And this is how I proceeded.

What I saw was men that
really love each other.

And usually it's a
pity that that only

happens in the front
lines and in combat.

And I got to see the genuine
affection and the love

and the working together and
the lack of the stupid crap.

Gentleness, the gentle giant
kind of thing, with the hand

on the head, how tender.

It is firstly a big
man being gentle,

oh, it just always gets me.

They saved this whole family,
that they thought the building

have been emptied,
and one of my guys

heard the grandmother
crying above the fire floor,

so I had to walk
away on that one.

I was being touched
all the time,

but I knew I'd die
before anyone saw me cry.

That's how many we lost, 343.

Oh, wow, wow, oh wow.

[crying]

[ELECTRIC GUITAR AND DRUMS
PLAYING]

JEFF MERMELSTEIN: So I
moved to New York in 1978,

and I guess I brought with me
a naivete, an unknowingness,

a freshness, of having grown
up on a typical suburban block.

So I bring with me a
different kind of a sponge.

I immediately fell in love
with the energy and all

that it's made up of.

The density of the
people, and who they are,

and what they're doing.

I like busy streets.

I like empty streets.

Sometimes I'll see
something on the ground

and it has no people in it.

I'm always looking
in storefronts

and bank windows
and cafes, and I

like going into the whirlwind.

I like it all.

I really like it all.

One of the most exciting things
in this kind of photography

is the ingredient of
surprise, not only

surprise at what your encounter
might be in the real world,

but what you get
back on the film.

That's part of the reason why
we're excited to get our film.

I don't care how many
rolls I take of something.

To me that doesn't
matter at all.

It's not like a contest.

Sometimes a picture
will happen single,

but often it will
not happen that way.

And clearly I have a
memory of the burning shoe.

When I saw a burning
shoe I couldn't-- I mean,

I couldn't believe it.

I couldn't have
thought about it,

I couldn't have thought
of it happening.

And I was like, how
much film do I have?

So I had like three
rolls that day,

and I have at least maybe,
I don't know, seven frames.

You know they're going
to vary, this has

a particular pedestrian, a
particular amount of smoke,

and distance.

I really worked the shoe.

[organ and drums playing]

Some people think my
pictures are funny.

I didn't realize that.

And it makes me excited.

It's hard to be funny.

I do whatever I can to help
me take my next picture.

I just sniff something
that way, I'll go that way.

And it's totally instinctual,
and so like when I'm out there

I could just do whatever.

It's not really a
casual thing, it's

pushing my intuition in
such a way that might

relate to a jazz musician.

And I'm not musical at all,
but it must relate somehow

to that process of creativity.

I know how much film or
time it takes to make

a an interesting photograph.

There is a luck, but I believe
it was Helen Levitt that said

that you create your luck,
and there's a lot of work

involved in creating luck.

[bass and drums playing]

MAX KOZLOFF: Helen Levitt was
a diminutive woman walking

with a small miniature
camera, able to conceal

her activities because
of her modest presence,

and agile movement.

The work she produced
is figurative

in our imaginative
memories of New York

because of both the warmth and
the pathos of the sightings

she made of children, and
immigrants, and poor people,

and communities, all
hugger-mugger together

in a kind of exquisite concord.

Lisette Model, she
had a Rolleiflex

where she'd have to look
down into the viewfinder.

The result was many of her
figures seem to loom enormously

and prodigiously on the
horizon, above which,

there loomed these
enormous skyscrapers.

She made these
figures incredibly

monumental, impending,
sinister sometimes,

morbid, and unforgettable.

The phenomenon of Diane
Arbus, so memorable

in her understanding of
photographic past in New York.

Very unique, unrepeatable,
idiosyncratic in the extreme

in her idea that the banality of
everyday existence was in fact

a possible source of
horror and perversion.

Arbus upturned,
pulled a rug from,

our notions that
everything was getting

going along as it should.

There was a kind of
subliminal freakishness

in many of the characters
she photographed.

After Arbus, New
York photography

would never remain the same.

Nobody really thought
about style in photography

for much of the 19th
century, and it's not

until the late 1880s really you
get to Stieglitz and Emerson,

and various other
people in Britain

as well as United States.

And this trickles down to art
photography, all the magazines,

and soon you have
dentists in [inaudible]

taking pictures of trees at
sunset that look Japanese.

And then meanwhile
all along there's

been this great documentary
photography that

passed unnoticed it the time.

And there were a lot of these,
sort of, citizen photographers.

Also I think of the photo
league, that great institution,

some of whom made interesting
pictures by accident,

and some of whom were,
like, real artists.

REBECCA LEPKOFF: I saw an
article in, I think it was PM,

about the Photo League
and their workshop,

and there was a
little photo on there.

And I said, the philosophy they
have, this is what I'm doing

by myself, you know
photographing the way

people lived, where they
lived, how they lived,

what they were doing, how
you see the way they lived.

It was having to
do with humanity.

I went to visit them
I ended up signing up

for one of these dance classes.

Dance must have help me, we
used to study choreography.

Space had a lot
to do with dance.

The space you're making
and the space where

you're standing on the stage.

She just moved the space of
the stage onto the street.

The camera is supposed to make
a document of how things are,

how people looked maybe in
1950 with their Stetson hats

kerchiefs, or how
their dresses looked,

or how the tenements looked.

I just kept, for years,
taking photographs

of the Lower East Side.

During the glory
of the Photo League

there's so many of the
famous photographers

used to come down and spend
time talking and meeting people.

I wonder if the Photo
League didn't get

busted out, how they would be.

It was labeled un-American,
and if the FBI was around

and they got a list, they
could really grab you.

People really stopped coming
because they were fearful.

It's just folded up.

You never talked about
communism or anything,

but they were always
kept an eye on us

because they felt we were
close to the philosophy

of the working people,
of the poor people.

MAN ON MEGAPHONE: Love it
or leave it you fucking

communist piece of shit!

Relax!

MAN: What's that telling them?

They're saying that we're
garbage and thats-- we are

citizens of the United States.

What are you going to do with
these films that you're making?

CAMERAMAN: Oh I don't know.

Hopefully they'll be
important some day, right?

Yeah you never know, you know?

CAMERAMAN: Hopefully you'll
be important someday, right?

CLAYTON PATTERSON:
It seemed like one

of the only places where I
could fit in was New York.

And I'm from
Western Canada which

is very provincial, very
conservative, very sort of

like, backward in its own way.

I don't know whether you want
to call it ego, or ambition,

or whatever, but yeah,
I thought that this

was-- I wanted to swim
in the biggest pool,

you know what I'm saying?

So I wanted to jump
into the deep end,

so I ended up coming over
here to the Lower East Side,

and Lower East Side was
sort of like perfect.

I mean at that time it was
like, dangerous and drugs,

but it had a class of people who
I could easily identify with.

And so that made it really, sort
of, comfortable to be around,

and also there was this whole
kind of energy over here that

was really sort of wild and free
and outlaw-ish and all of that.

And I found that to
be very comfortable.

The one thing I did
consistently in all the time,

in terms of the street,
was photographing

people in front of my door.

By photographing
in front of my door

and then putting the
pictures in the window,

and making these people
famous, I eventually

photographed the whole
neighborhood, from 14th Street

to the Brooklyn
Bridge, which is huge.

A lot of the people
that are in the pictures

are the people that
were on the streets,

a lot of the drug
sellers, the gangs,

the bad guys, the good guys.

So a lot of times
I would just do

little tricks like, instead of
saying, cheese, I would say,

pussy.

And of course most guys
will smile or laugh

when you say that,
and then so you've

sort of captured them smiling.

And when you see
them they just look

like good normal
kids or people, they

just look like regular people.

It's not about you
as an individual,

it's about you as a community.

So I think of my photography
in multiple ways.

I think of it as keeping
things for the future and sort

of preserving this
moment now for them,

I think of it as
an activist tool,

I think of it as
something that can

give you access to places where
you could never be before.

The Tompkins Square
Park police ride,

that was August 6th or 7th,
1988, where a number of people

were there and had
videos and photographs,

but they was sparse and few.

Whereas I ended up with a three
hour and 33 minute tape which,

kind of, laid out
the whole night.

It really created a major
amount of press and noise,

so pretty soon I was
on every TV station

including Oprah, and CNN, and
New York Times, all of them.

OPRAH: Meet a man
who went to jail,

rather than give police
the videotape he made

of a demonstration turned riot.

It was a police riot.

CLAYTON PATTERSON:
That was the first time

that the handheld
video camera like that

had ever been used as a protest
tool, and as an activist tool,

against government wrongdoing.

It was that egalitarian
factor that you

didn't have to, you know,
have gone to Harvard,

and learned art history,
it wasn't really like that.

And I think at a
certain level, too, I

think because of what
I've photographed,

a lot of what I've
done, some of it

appears to be anti-social
because it was like,

conflicts with the
police, stuff like that,

and I got cops in
trouble for doing it,

but in reality it's not
that it's anti-social,

it's interested
in a social factor

that most people
try to overlook.

And I think if one is going
to spend their time doing

something, you ought to try
to make it to be important,

you ought to make
it significant.

And that's part of the
reason of coming to New York.

Why did I come to New York?

Because I wanted to have
what I did to become

relevant and significant.

[electric piano plays]

ELLIOTT ERWITT: I get the
feeling that there are too

many bad pictures in the world.

But there's always
room for a good ones,

because good ones illuminate,
entertain, amuse, make people

feel, instruct, do
all good things,

and give you some kind of an
emotion, positive or negative,

or something.

It just can't lie flat, it has
to speak to you in some way.

It has to make you laugh, or
cry, or something in between.

And if it doesn't do that,
then it's not very interesting.

A picture has to communicate,
otherwise there's no point.

I've taken quite a
few pictures already,

so sometimes you see the same
thing that you've seen before,

and then you just don't do it.

And as I shoot film
and not digital,

taking pictures is a process.

I mean, you take the picture,
you gotta develop it,

you gotta make a
contact, you gotta

make prints, and so forth.

I do everything in house.

My darkroom is downstairs.

I've always had a darkroom
since I was 15 years old.

It's not like, with a
digital camera where

you have an instant result.
Digital manipulation

kills photography.

I think that's the unfortunate
thing about digital.

It's made it too easy and
everybody can get an image,

it's just that not everybody
can get a good one.

There's not much optimism
with my colleagues.

Things are tough.

Film certainly will become
obsolete, the question is when?

The internet has not helped.

People want to use
stuff for nothing.

Requirements are
really quite base.

You don't really need
photographers anymore,

for so many things
you can just get stock

and make your own picture.

A little bit of this, a
little bit of that, and you

get a picture.

JOEL MEYEROWITZ: Photography
is a democratic medium,

anybody can use it.

But digital
photography and the web

have made it truly
the democratic,

worldwide, universal medium.

Everybody's a photographer now.

And we are going
to find geniuses.

Geniuses are going to be
awakened by this opportunity

to make pictures with
their cell phone,

or their camera, because they're
going to see the results of it

right away, and they're going
to say, this fascinates me,

I can say something.

But the work they
make is going to look

very much like what the digital
world is, where we are today.

It's going to be
very contemporary.

I mean sure, there's a lot of
crap everywhere, we know that,

but I think there's also genius
waiting to be discovered.

MARTHA COOPER: I used to
think every time I pressed

the shutter it was $0.50.

And that click,
click, click, that

could add up really quickly with
the film and the developing.

But now it doesn't
add up click, click,

click, so there's no reason
not to just shoot everything.

BOOGIE: No, I don't
own digital camera.

I shoot film only.

With film you keep
pushing yourself,

and I think the result, because
you don't know what you have,

you might get something better.

You might have some
better results.

I don't have Photoshop and I
don't really like computers.

I like email, I like
Google, that's about it.

It's too precise.

I get very, very, very
scared, so scared.

I could never buy enough
external hard drives to back me

up, you see how I am.

I mean my whole house would
have to be an external.

And then I'd have to get another
house to back up the house.

It would never end.

I'm just crazy
about my work, you

know you couldn't back it up.

I'm sure you could, but
it's very hard for me.

JILL FREEDMAN: A
picture's a picture.

What does it matter
what tool you use?

I think it's a
ludicrous and ridiculous

people carrying on about that.

It doesn't matter how you get
the picture, it's the picture.

REBECCA LEPKOFF: Change
is so inevitable.

What all these cameras
out there photographing?

What don't they take?

Will there be
anybody who's going

to be using the old photography
the way it used to be,

as time goes on?

I just think about that.

[drums playing]

BRUCE DAVIDSON: I was 10 years
old, and a friend of mine

came by, Sammy, Sammy Nichols.

And he said you want to see
developing in my basement?

And I said, what's that?

He said, come along.

So I went with Sammy in
this dark, dank, basement

with a ruby light, and
he exposed something,

and an image appeared.

And that really affected me.

I ran home to my mother and
said, can I have a darkroom?

I lived like a monk.

I had a mattress on the
floor, a dying chiflera plant,

a darkroom-kitchen
combination where

I could eat frozen Hershey bars
and chicken while I printed.

All I wanted to do
was take pictures.

I didn't care about
anything else.

It's easy to penetrate
someone's privacy.

And it's about privacy.

And I've tried in
my work to make

contact, to offer pictures.

And even in a Brooklyn gang,
I would give them pictures.

And it was a way of seeing them
and a way of them seeing me.

And so I was able to
be invisible, almost,

to them, because they
were secure with me

being around with my camera.

But I would hand them a picture,
not only picture of themselves,

but a picture of something
else that I did, to let them

see there's an outside world.

And it was part of the
bonding because they

were very depressed, and
they were very angry.

They were very poor.

And there was nothing for
them in that community.

I was angry too.

I had a possibility, I
had a job, I had a life.

They didn't.

100th Street was considered
the worst block in the city.

I'd worked on 100th Street in a
large format 4x5 Linhof camera.

It was classic.

I was a real
photographer because I

went under a black
cloth, I fumbled around,

the pose is beautiful.

Dignity, it would
bring a dignity

to the act of photography.

If I walked around in
there with my little

Nikon or Cannon, or whatever,
boom, boom, boom, boom,

it's too thin.

It's too thin
because with 4x5, you

have to know what
the picture is,

so that you become
kind of collaborative

with your subject.

Time was suspended.

It wasn't a decisive moment,
it wasn't a moment intention,

fluid, like the gang pictures.

It was different for me.

It was a different experience.

The subway in the late 70s,
early 80s, was deplorable.

Everybody hated riding
the subway, it's unsafe,

it never ran right, it's full of
graffiti, all kinds of things,

dirty.

I read a lot of young
boys' books on tiger hunts,

and I schedule the way I would
be in a subway the same way

a tiger hunter would
walk across a field.

It's always, attack
from the rear.

So I was always
aware that I might

be attacked from the rear on
the subway, and actually I was.

I became addicted to the subway.

When I heard the rumble of the
train below our bedroom window,

I jumped up like a werewolf.

Sometimes I'd go on the subway
at one or two in the morning,

and stay until dawn.

I was starting to get a little
crazy with it, you know?

Normally I had the camera out,
because you can't approach

people and say, I'd like
to take your picture,

and reach into your back pocket.

And if someone
hesitated, I had an album

with me, a 5x7, a
wedding album, gold trim,

with samples of my work in it.

It's a wedding between
me and my subject.

Also the subway was sexy.

I had little love
affairs for 10 seconds

with women on the train,
and never see them again.

And it was Beauty and the
Beast, but sometimes the beast

was beautiful.

That happens a lot with
various bodies of work of mine,

where people are glad
you're there to see them,

because no one's
paying attention.

[electric guitar playing]

I don't expect everyone
to be like me, thank God.

If you have 42 Bruce
Gildens running around,

Jesus Christ, there'd probably
be a ban against photography.

No one would be allowed
to take street pictures

on the streets of New York.

I'm basically what's known
as a street photographer.

And when I was growing
up in Brooklyn,

in Williamsburg, I used to
look out my second story

window at the vigorous
street life down below,

and I was hooked.

And also television had a lot
to do because I like film noir

and I like shadows.

At times someone
will go out with me,

you know like I'm just with
somebody, and they'll say,

hey there's a person for
you, and I'll say no, they're

too-- I won't use
the word, stylish,

but they're dressed too neatly.

They look like they are a
character and they're not.

The hat is too neat,
everything is too much

like they're programmed.

OK?

It's not like they
are a character.

Just something catches me
there's something striking

in them, and I don't mean a
vulgarity type of striking,

I mean just as a detail.

It's something that just works.

They're a little bit more
extreme or some of these people

I've made more extreme.

You know they're
just average people,

but there's something
I see in them

that attracts me, that makes
me want to photograph them.

I realized I had to really
jump in people's faces

to isolate them, to separate the
foreground from the background.

Flash helps me visualize
my feelings of the city

because it shows the stress,
the energy, the speed,

and the anxiety of the people.

You can't photograph
everybody, you can't photograph

every situation, because
otherwise I wouldn't

be sitting here talking to you.

I feel almost like I'm
a director out there.

I am the director,
and sometimes if I

see something and the
person turns the other way,

I say to myself, shit he
doesn't take direction well.

[funky organ playing]

You know this thing
about invisibility,

I mean, I think
people overdo it.

When you have a little
camera you become a sneak.

So it becomes a different--
the rules change, of the game.

OK?

You can be invisible and be
very close, because sometimes I

work so close that
people don't realize

I'm taking their picture.

They look behind
them to see like,

who'd they take a picture of?

What happened with
this picture was,

I was taking the picture
because I like-- she's wearing

a bra and panties on the beach.

And then someone
came over and said

what is he taking a picture of?

And she went, over there.

Here, this is quite interesting
for me because I saw that

and I wanted to take
a picture of his face,

because part of his
jaw is like, missing.

OK?

So I went over and had
a conversation with him,

and I asked him, I said,
can I take a picture

up close of your face?

He said, yeah sure.

With his beautiful
flowing hair, I

wish I had his
hair, not his chin,

but the thing is, with
his hair, I mean he's

like a beautiful bird for me.

So I don't-- people in my
pictures aren't these people.

People in my pictures are
symbols for what I see.

And it's how I express
what the world is.

I don't think the world
is an excellent place.

I'm comfortable doing
what I do because I don't

think I'm doing anything wrong.

You know I don't let people
bully me or intimidate me, OK?

So I'm not some
pushover out there.

And if you look in my
eyes, you'll see that I'm

not a normal guy sometimes.

I've done some pretty
wild things out there.

[ELECTRIC GUITAR AND DRUMS
PLAYING]

MAX KOZLOFF: When you
speak of William Klein,

you speak of a bad
boy, a kind of renegade

in the history of
photographic practices.

When he came to New
York in the 1950s

it was as if he had
a score to settle.

So that there's a
strange dissonant mixture

of familiarity and
distancing that

goes on in William Klein's view
of New York that epitomized

both the bitterness of his
recognitions in the city,

and at the same time
his affection for them.

Robert Frank produced
for us an album

of the city, the exact opposite
of the cheerful, gregarious

multitudes, for which the
city has been celebrated

in many other photo campaigns.

His New York, on
the contrary, was

a patchwork of sub-cultures
and wary glances.

All of this comes through
works of great power

that add to the
mythos of the city

as a place you have
to watch your step in.

JEFF MERMELSTEIN: People see me
aiming at a certain direction,

they might think I'm
taking their picture,

and if they're not liking that,
they're not going to like that.

And it can and has been
a problem more than once.

JILL FREEDMAN:
Certain range finders

are magnificent weapons.

There's no mirror to
get bounced around,

and if you wrap the strap
tightly and go like that,

sideways, they don't
mess with you too much.

I have to start exercising
because I, I don't know,

I want to feel able
to defend myself.

MARTHA COOPER: I don't go
out with a lot of equipment,

but I don't hide the
equipment either.

I go out with a
worn old camera bag,

and I just try to be
street savvy, that's all.

I got locked in the train
once with some graffiti kids.

There are very special
keys, and they locked me in,

so nobody could get
at us, and then they

scribbled all over the place.

So they were little kids
from Yonkers, white kids.

[men arguing]

They kept on trying to
push me off the block

and I don't want
to hear about it,

so eventually it got
into a confrontation,

and then I got beaten
up by the cops.

And I was covered in
blood, my shirt was ripped,

I got a couple of
teeth knocked out.

There was a guy that's-- you
know, I don't know, I was--

so this was 10 years
ago-- and a tough guy,

you know shaved head,
deep scars in his head,

you know, a toughie.

So I said, oh fuck it, I'll
take his picture anyway.

So I took his picture.

And he came over
to me and he said,

you do that again he
said I'll fucking--

and I didn't say a word because
he could have fucking taken me

and threw me through the window.

MAX KOZLOFF: But this all
seems quaint and archaic

now, because our
definitions of the public

and the private sphere
have been entirely

altered by new technologies
and new social attitudes.

We're all
exhibitionists, or people

who would like to
be noticed, however

briefly, by electronic means.

So the idea of someone objecting
to having a camera poked

in their face is obsolete.

Let me introduce myself,
my name is Ricky Powell.

[cheering]

Oh shit, well thank you man,
that's very nice of you,

because I'm usually
used to getting dissed,

like I'm the bike
messenger at home,

oh, who the fuck is this guy?

[funky music plays]

Ah, I listen to the blues
hour on Jazz 88 every day,

3 o'clock.

I gotta have soundtrack as
I walk through the streets.

My neighborhood has been
infested by new Jack Cornballs,

so this helps me
freeze them out.

[funky organ plays]

Yeah, well I've been living
here 20 years on Charles street,

but I grew up in the village.

I met this weird, fucking weird,
arty, crazy, crazy dressed girl

at Danceteria, we hit it off.

So we go to like Roxy's, and
Danceteria, and all the clubs,

and she'd bring her little sure
shot, a Minolta auto-focus,

hi-matic.

I took to it like,
easy, actually, nat,

but I never took it
seriously, it was

just something I did with her.

Spring of '85 she ditched
me for some fucking scrub

who wore tie-dye yoga pants.

I was fucking-- I'm going
to make this bitch sorry she

played me like a soggy cannoli.

I'm going to take
this camera, and I'm

gonna fucking become
something where

she fucking is gonna be mad
sorry she dissed me like this.

Spring of '85,
early like March, I

declared I'm going
to take pictures,

I'm going to take pictures.

[funky music plays]

Yeah I've been a messenger,
substitute schoolteacher,

frozen lemonade vendor,
tour photographer.

I had my share of
bullshit jobs, you know,

but I always bring a
bring a camera with me

to battle the
mundaneness of the job.

This I took in the summer of
'86 from my frozen lemonade

stand, and I like this
shot because the dog

is running shit.

And I got a famous shot of Cindy
Crawford I took at the club MK.

I was a busboy, I went into the
woman's bathroom to clean up.

I turn around and I seen this
chick, I'm like, oh shit,

yo, you mind if I get a flat?

I guess my magnetism
overtook her.

That's in the toilet
stall right there.

Debbie Nassar, loved her, man.

Laurence Fishburne,
love Laurence,

I don't know how I used to end
up hanging out with him, man.

I got some good
shots, he liked me.

Oh yeah, oh, oh yeah.

Oh snap.

RICKY POWELL: Run
from Run-DMC would

come pick me up in his
car and we'd drive around.

I'm just doing a photo
shoot with Run-DMC.

Come over here man, I want
to get the nice sundown.

It's nice, it's aesthetic.

Dondi White, the
graffiti legend.

I don't know how I used to
hang out with these dudes,

except they knew I was down.

RICKY POWELL: We're in
the palace of the rap

Svengali Mr. Russell Simmons.

Alice.

How are you bud?

Cold, Ricky.

I love the way
you've, you know,

dressed for today's interview.

My most well known photo,
probably Warhol-Basquiat.

Went to Shafrazi to see the
Warhol-Basquiat opening.

I meet up with
Zephyr and Revolt,

they were like a
dynamic duo of graffiti.

And I used to just be,
like, on their jock.

And then we noticed Warhol and
Basquiat coming from Houston

street, and I was
just like, hey, you

mind if I get a quick flick?

Or some shit, I don't know.

And they looked at me.

Basquiat had seen me around,
he was always nice to me.

They stopped for me,
posed, I took the shot,

I said, thanks man.

So I had just shot two great
dynamic duos in the same minute

at the onset in my
career so-- career.

And hustling is like,
actually my main occupation.

Hustling.

That's what it is man, waking
up, making sure you wake up

in the daytime, putting your
pants on, making the calls,

getting out of the
house, maneuvering,

you know I don't take
those for granted.

I have to be prepared because
even dope shot might arise,

even when I just go to
the deli, and it happens.

You know street photography to
me is like my transistor radio,

the playlist is infinite.

There was no reason I shouldn't
have a camera because all I had

to do is uh-- and if you can't
do this, if this is too much,

then, you know, I was
in the wrong business.

[electronic music plays]

I find it very difficult
to take a photograph

without a person knowing.

Occasionally I will,
but there's still

something magical about being
able to approach a stranger

and convince them
that you are sincere.

JAMEL SHABAZZ: In 1977
I joined the military.

I said to myself, when I
return back to the states,

I will never be without images.

I returned during the summer of
1980, and I came on a mission

to just shoot and recapture
different stages of my life,

so I was with a camera
every single day,

from that point
to this very day.

You know, when I was downtown
in Brooklyn photographing

the posses, the crews, I
realized the psychology

of photography for me.

You see the alpha and I would
study my subjects first,

because being a
military man, we learned

the science of recognizance,
and recognizing leadership.

So I would see that alpha
male or female I was studying

for a few, and I knew
that I had to approach

him first in order
to get the permission

to shoot everybody else.

And alphas are normally the male
who has the jury on, you know,

he's distinguishable.

And I would compliment
him, because was

the psychology also, to
compliment my subjects and say,

you know what?

I'm looking at you, and I
recognize power and strength,

and I can tell that you
are a very powerful person.

He'd say, you know what?

Yeah I am.

I would photograph him,
and go get it blown up,

and bring him back to him, and
he would show all his people

and say, yo look at this.

So then they would
all want photographs.

They gave me the name picture
man, and I was just there.

I left at the age of 17
to go into the military,

I came home at 20,
so a lot of things

I wasn't exposed to during my
youth, but when I returned,

I saw prostitution
and homelessness

for the first time.

And for whatever reason
I wanted to capture it.

So I would go out and
I would just, not only

take photographs, but I
was really curious on why

these women became homeless, and
try to get them off the street

at age 20 years old.

So in a sense I became
a street teacher,

and I had a reason
behind what I was doing.

And it was dangerous
in the beginning.

And I saw a prostitute
performing a sex act

on a religious figure, and
I shot it without asking,

and she started screaming,
and the customer

ran off without paying her.

So her screams summons
her security, her pimp.

And I had said to them, with
all due respect, before you

attack me, let me at
least explain what I did,

and why I did it.

And in my explanation, the
person he says, you know what?

I respect you.

And he says, from this point on,
you have my permission to come

out here any time and shoot.

He says, the only thing you
just have to do in the future

is ask.

So what that did
for me at that time,

it taught me the
importance of asking.

And I was criticized
for that as time

would go on because people would
say that my work is too posed.

But what it was with
me, I would ask.

With all due respect, my
name is Jamel Shabazz,

may I take a photograph of you?

The smile is a reflection
of what I gave them.

So when I look at the smiles
that I see in my photographs,

I created an atmosphere
which made them feel good.

And that makes me
feel good to know

that I was able to do that.

[electronic music plays]

MARY ELLEN MARK: I was born in
the suburbs of Philadelphia,

I can remember when I was
eight years old walking

home from, like, third
grade and saying,

I got to get out of here.

And I stayed with that,
and I really always thought

about my freedom, and I always
thought about moving to New

York, even when I was a child.

When I first came
to New York, I would

go to the parks,
the Central Park,

and I would also, which I still
do, try and find out when there

were events, shoot around them,
not necessarily the parade

itself.

I still love the street and
I still go out on the street.

It's a challenge to
work on the street.

The hardest
photography you do is

street photography,
actually, because you have

to really think on your feet.

You go down the street
and you turn right,

and something amazing happens.

You don't make that turn,
you left and nothing happens.

You have to make a picture
in that very moment,

and I'm old school
in the sense-- well

I'm an analog
photographer but, I'm

old school in the sense that
I don't believe in cropping,

that I believe you have to
make the picture in the camera.

It's harder to be
a woman than a man,

I'll definitely admit that.

The disadvantages came
more with business,

with people not maybe
wanting to assign you

as much in the
beginning, but also

the disadvantage of strength,
just physical strength.

But I think there's also an
advantage to being a female,

if you're a street photographer,
because I can walk down

the street and I can
and knock on a door,

and someone will let me in.

I'm less threatening than a man.

I think often your
subject matter

can show you what the
picture is, makes it for you.

So I'm not a strong believer
in heavy duty concepts

when I do portraits of people.

I sort of like it
to come from people.

I try and make iconic images.

They're hard to make, but that's
my goal, is to make images

that stand on their own.

Not to tell a particular story,
I think film tells a story.

Still pictures should be
single, very powerful, images.

I don't know whether my
pictures cause social change,

I think that maybe
they make people aware,

and I think it's important
for people to be aware.

I think today the fine
art world, at this moment,

does not really appreciate
reality, or documentary work.

And I think it's too bad,
because for me that's

the work I collect, and
that's the work I love,

and that was my
choice of a career.

I love photographs about
humans, or animals,

I love animals too, but, you
know, humans and animals.

The art world, they're always
thinking in terms of decoration

and those kind of strong
images aren't as decorative.

There are so many great
documentary photographers,

and we're not having the
opportunity to see their work.

And I think that's very
sad, because my favorite

photographs, and I
think historically

the pictures that I
love, are the photographs

that are about reality.

JEFF MERMELSTEIN:
Street photography

is really not what
people are talking about,

it's a little retro.

So to maintain that
enthusiasm is difficult.

There's less of
us that will take

35 millimeter street
photographs, you know,

their whole life.

[bass playing]

As I become older I feel more
in touch with the importance

of what I, and others
like I, am doing,

and that is, rendering
the human condition,

showing the world
and life as it is.

Us picture makers are
responsible for doing

that in an honest, and way that
is unique to our own selves,

to make a contribution.

I'm recording life now my way.

I think this might be the first
roll I ever shot, right here.

And indeed it is.

Indeed it is, 1966.

Right out into the street.

Well there's pictures
is everywhere,

my God, if you're in the mood.

But, you know, it's like if
you're in a your bad mood,

everybody on the bus looks like
a maniac, or a terrible freak,

or a moron.

And when you're in a good
mood, and you can't help it,

you smile at someone--
surprise, they smile back.

Like, every picture has
to say, only in New York.

BOOGIE: Sometimes I leave
my house, and by the time

I reach Manhattan I
would shoot three rolls,

because there's always--
stuff is always changing,

there's always something
new, life is different,

people are different.

I'm just trying to show things
as they are, without bullshit,

without judging people.

I am more and more
excited about what I do.

I shoot more and more, because
I think I have less time

left on this planet, I guess.

A street can be like a nerve
ending It's not the street,

it's the life on the street,
or where the street takes you,

that's important.

It's out there,
you know, I'll go

on just trying to get it right,
still trying to get it right.

Photography is
about description.

It just describes things.

That's all the camera does, your
point it, you press the button,

it describes what's
in front of it.

Something happens, some
personal thing happens.

Even though it's a machine, and
even though it uses a fraction

of a second of time, we
learn, as human beings,

how to understand those
minute little exchanges.

And I'm much happier being out
on the street, mixing it up,

with the chance
quality of things

potentially appearing
out of ordinary reality.

A slice of a moment.

A thousandth of a
second of recognition.

And if you can accept that,
then you can operate that way.

There are plenty of people who
don't have that kind of belief.

That the world's going to
present itself in that way,

and so they don't see it because
they're not looking for it.

[piano and bass playing]

[electronic music playing]