Todd Webb loved photographing on the streets of New York and the Lower East Side was one of his favorite haunts. On April 20, 1946, Webb writes about the making of the wonderful picture above (Near Fulton Fish Market, New York, 1946):
“One of the photographs I made yesterday has a beautiful quality – ortho film – it is of four young boys who happened to come along as I was setting up to take a store front down on South St. near the Fulton Market. They were tough young east side kids but nice and quite understanding. They wanted to have their picture taken and it seemed that they might fit into what I was doing so I told them to stand in front of the window. They stood up in a row and I asked if they wouldn’t stand just as if they were talking. The leader, in what I called the best Brooklynese said ‘Oh, you mean nonchalant, O.K. guys get nonchalant!’ – it sounded much funnier than it reads.”
On January 21st, 1946 he writes:
“Photographed on the Lower East Side yesterday on Hester and Suffolk streets, It was a pleasure to use my Graphic again and the negatives are exciting. Saw many of my old pushcart friends and they gave me a big welcome. ”
