“As individuals in New York City, when we become part of the crowd, we lose our individuality if only for a few minutes and become part of the fabric and mosaic of the city. We are the city, we belong and are beholden to the city, our identity is expressed through and of the city. We can say that we are New York.” — Harvey Stein
Walking down a busy street in the heart of New York City surrounded by a sea of people in constant motion is a unique, sometimes daunting experience, depending on whether you are a native New Yorker or a visitor. The walker must merge into a stream of humanity and become one with the crowd whose members forge ahead, engrossed in the daily rituals of getting to work, rushing to a meeting, grabbing lunch, catching a passing parade, or returning home to start the routine over again the next day. The streets of New York City are the great equalizer where for a moment people of all walks of life, ages, and ethnicities walk together as a unifying force before branching off to different destinations, dreams, hopes and objectives.
In Briefly Seen New York Street Life (Schiffer Publishing), photographs by Harvey Stein, the street photographer who has spent over forty years photographing the people and neighborhoods of his adopted city, turns his lens on some of the most densely populated areas of New York City –midtown and downtown Manhattan. He photographs the packed and pulsating streets during peak hours of activity during the day and night, including rush hour, to capture up close the theater of the everyday as it plays out on the streets. Stein walks with the crowd, melting into it with his camera to capture a choreography of density that is unparalleled anywhere else in the world.
In viewing the 172 timeless black-and-white images in Briefly Seen taken by Stein between 1974 and 2014, it is clear that he is smitten by the vibrancy, excitement and diversity of New York street life. He captures the crowds, singling out individuals within it who pique his interest, and the connection between the people, the buildings, and the charged environment that envelops them. Stein describes his work as “my response to the rough, raw, charged and even magical energy of New York City street life. I am attracted to the nuances of behavior and body language in public places, characteristic of the ‘walker in the city.’
Briefly Seen is the last in Stein’s trilogy of books about New York. The first monograph, Coney Island 40 Years (Schiffer Publishing, 2011), documents the photographer’s ongoing fascination with the eccentric and exuberant aspects of this famous Brooklyn beach community. The second title, Harlem Street Portraits (Schiffer Publishing, 2013), is a series of more formalized environmental portraits of the people who live in this historically significant African American neighborhood. In Briefly Seen, Stein is working closer to home. Among the images are his favorite haunts–the intersection of 5th Avenue and 45th street(a few blocks away from the International Center of Photography School where he has been teaching since the 1970s), landmarks like Radio City Music Hall or Little Italy, and the southeast corner of 5th Avenue and 57th street where Tiffany’s and Trump Tower loom.
TALKS AND BOOK SIGNINGS
MIAMI
Miami Street Photography Festival
Master Talk: “Ways of seeing” + book signing
Thursday, December 3, 7pm
MANHATTAN
B&H Event Space, New York
Talk and book signing
Tuesday December 15, 4-6pm
BROOKLYN
Talk and book signing
For Coney Island 40 Years
Photographs by Harvey Stein
Brooklyn Museum
Saturday, December 7, 7-8:30pm
BOOK
Briefly Seen – New York Street Life
Photographs by Harvey Stein
Essays by Marilyn Satin Kushner and Tracy Xavia Karner
Schiffer Publishing
12” x 9”
Hardcover; 184 pages
172 black and white photographs
Price: $45.00 US
www.schifferbooks.com
http://harveysteinphoto.com
