Please talk about your inspiration to work as a photographer, specializing in street photography. How did you get involved in the street photography scene in the 1970s?
Harvey Stein: I began to photograph seriously in New York in 1970. I came to NYC to attend Columbia Graduate School of Business in 1966 and got my MBA degree in 1968. I loved being in New York, it was so exciting, coming from staid Pennsylvania. I had bought a camera while stationed in Germany with the U.S. Army in the mid-‘60s, and started to shoot on the streets after graduation from Columbia. The most natural thing was to hit the streets and take photographs of what I was seeing, which was a lot of decay, noise, movement, strange and varied people, the fervent anti-war movement with weekly demonstrations, and the numerous Be-ins and Love-ins of the late 1960s–early ‘70s. I took a class with Ben Fernandez, a well-known and dynamic street photographer, he told me to get a Leica, a 21mm lens, and shoot at Coney Island. I did this and still do.
What do you find to be the most challenging aspects of being a street photographer? Does shooting in New York City make these challenges harder or easier, or does it not impact them at all?
I think it’s difficult to shoot in NYC, but no more difficult then what I’ve experienced in, say, Mexico City, Quito or Paris. I’ve found that people in India or South East Asia are very happy to be photographed. But none of this prevents me from shooting on the streets. My approach is to engage people, talk to them, even arrange them and then photograph, almost like a studio portrait, but on the street.
The most challenging aspect of doing street photography is to control the chaos of the streets, to include foregrounds and backgrounds that add, not detract from the image; to simply make strong and impactful images often in a difficult environment where there is little control. This is why I usually work in a collaborative rather then a candid way with my subjects on the street.
What is the best part of being a street photographer in NYC?
The best part of being a street photographer in NYC is meeting people, being at events you wouldn’t go to otherwise, whether a demonstration or obscure parade in an outer borough neighborhood, and of experiencing life first hand. I am a witness rather than a participant and that suits my temperament well.
For Briefly Seen, why did you decide to change your usual style of photographing people on the street with their input to photographing your subjects candidly?
I prefer going up to people on the street and interacting with them either before or while I’m in the act of photographing them. Sometimes I’d ask to take their photograph, often I’d just do it while they are aware of it happening, or sometimes talk for a few minutes and then raise the camera to my eye. I try to go into a situation gently, often complimenting the person first which usually disarms and makes them feel somewhat comfortable to being photographed. Most street photographers shoot candidly, I don’t. I feel sneaky doing that. But for Briefly Seen, I looked for images in my archive where I shot in crowds candidly, liked many of them, and tried to add to that. Artists need to try different and varied things, I enjoyed working in a new vein, and enjoyed the results. A major goal for the book was to show the craziness, anxiety, flux, vigor, fun, and the magical energy of New York street life. I could only do this using a candid approach.
All images are © Harvey Stein from his new book, Briefly Seen: New York Street Life, with essays by Marilyn Kushner and Tracy Xavia Karner, published by Schiffer Publishing.
Miss Rosen is a New York-based writer, curator, and brand strategist. There is nothing she adores so much as photography and books. A small part of her wishes she had a proper library, like in the game of Clue. Then she could blaze and write soliloquies to her in and out of print loves.
