New York City in itself is a subject without end, and photographers have long been drawn to the endless seductions of its streets and inhabitants. These four photographs share that feeling of being a spectator without being a participant: a man in the ubiquitous yellow cab with half his face hidden from view; two images from Times Square in the 1950s, Johnny Guitar, a street performer not unlike today’s “Naked Cowboy,” and Woman in Ticket Booth, her eyes hidden by dark glasses and perfectly framed by the small opening in which she speaks, illuminated to daylight by the blinding light bulbs of The Great White Way; and an anonymous woman unabashedly examining herself in someone else’s mirror being moved on the Upper East Side. We imagine their stories through the choices made by each photographer, a slice of life, comprising a shared commonality.
Ralph Gibson | Unknown (Woman Looking in Mirror) | Frank Oscar Larson
Ralph Gibson
Untitled (from “New York” series), 1983
Chromographic print
Gift of Jason Kooch, 2019.1.4
Unknown
Untitled (Woman Looking in Mirror, NYC), n.d.
Gelatin silver print
Gift of Queens College Library, 2010.00.13
Frank Oscar Larson
Johnny Guitar, Times Square, c. 1950s
Digital print from original negative
Courtesy of a private collection
Frank Oscar Larson
Woman in Ticket Booth, Times Square, c. 1950s
Digital print from original negative
Courtesy of a private collection
Images by Jacqui Hopely Monkell