A photography book about New York city might sound like something that’s been done 1,000 times, but photographer Paul McDonough’s take on it is truly unique. “Paul McDonough: New York Photographs 1968–1978” (Umbrage Editions, Sept. 2010, $45) is a surprising and engaging collection of street photography that feels like traveling through a time machine when looking through the book’s pages.
McDonough moved to New York city in 1967 after graduating from the New England School of Art. It was in New York where he started doing street photography with friends. The initial ventures along ten-block stretches of the city yielded scores of photographs, some of which surprised McDonough.
“Like the stock market, I had good days and bad days,” he says in his book. “However, when I actually found a successful photograph, there was the immediate pleasure of seeing how the camera had accommodated my reaction at the moment of pressing the shutter.”
One such photograph was of a man in the Metropolitan Museum of Art who was touching some of the art. McDonough recalls that he was anxious as he followed the man, wondering if something would get knocked over. He also wondered, as street photographers often do, if the man was performing for him. But it was only later as McDonough looked over his prints from that day that he saw the repetition of three beards, and it looked to him as if the man in the museum was facing his ancestors in the form of busts in a museum.
Most of the photographs in the book are simple in composition, but very rich and complex in their subject matter. In “Woman in Hat,” a woman who looks like she is in her late 20’s is seen walking down a crowded city street, surrounded by crowds. The scene is both familiar to anyone who has ever spent time in New York, and reminiscent of a distinct age of fashion. The woman is looking down and slightly to the side, but the details of her outfit are captivating and the image peaks a natural curiosity for more information. Who is she, where is she going, did she move to New York city from somewhere, was she on her way to work, what is her story?
McDonough moved to New York city in 1967 after graduating from the New England School of Art. It was in New York where he started doing street photography with friends. The initial ventures along ten-block stretches of the city yielded scores of photographs, some of which surprised McDonough.
“Like the stock market, I had good days and bad days,” he says in his book. “However, when I actually found a successful photograph, there was the immediate pleasure of seeing how the camera had accommodated my reaction at the moment of pressing the shutter.”
One such photograph was of a man in the Metropolitan Museum of Art who was touching some of the art. McDonough recalls that he was anxious as he followed the man, wondering if something would get knocked over. He also wondered, as street photographers often do, if the man was performing for him. But it was only later as McDonough looked over his prints from that day that he saw the repetition of three beards, and it looked to him as if the man in the museum was facing his ancestors in the form of busts in a museum.
Most of the photographs in the book are simple in composition, but very rich and complex in their subject matter. In “Woman in Hat,” a woman who looks like she is in her late 20’s is seen walking down a crowded city street, surrounded by crowds. The scene is both familiar to anyone who has ever spent time in New York, and reminiscent of a distinct age of fashion. The woman is looking down and slightly to the side, but the details of her outfit are captivating and the image peaks a natural curiosity for more information. Who is she, where is she going, did she move to New York city from somewhere, was she on her way to work, what is her story?
That heightened sense of curiosity and the desire to learn more about the subject is a wonderful side effect of street photography. McDonough didn’t stop to ask the woman her name, profession, and age, but he did capture a moment of time in her life. In a way, more than 40 years later, she is representative of so many young women who have always come to New York to make their dreams come true.
There are also several moments in the book that elicit unexpected laughter. The tough-looking man in a dark suit walking down a crowded street with a cigar sticking out of his mouth, for example—you can almost hear the man’s fast-talking, brash New York accent through the din of the traffic and people around him.
“Paul McDonough: New York Photographs 1968–1978” is priced on the higher end at $45, but it’s an artistic, expressive, and unique tome that is worthy of looking through again and again. It’s available on Amazon.com and at Umbrage.com.
McDonough has taught photography at the Pratt Institute, Yale University, Cooper Union, Marymount College, Parsons School of Design, and Fordham University, and has worked as a freelance photographer and paste-up mechanical artist. He has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation and has had work displayed in numerous public and private collections including the Museum or Modern Art, the New York Public Library, the DeCordova Museum, the Dreyfus Corporation, the Lila Acheson Wallace Print Collection, and the Joseph Seagram’s Collection. He is currently represented by the Sasha Wolf Gallery in New York and lives in Brooklyn with his wife and their two children.
There are also several moments in the book that elicit unexpected laughter. The tough-looking man in a dark suit walking down a crowded street with a cigar sticking out of his mouth, for example—you can almost hear the man’s fast-talking, brash New York accent through the din of the traffic and people around him.
“Paul McDonough: New York Photographs 1968–1978” is priced on the higher end at $45, but it’s an artistic, expressive, and unique tome that is worthy of looking through again and again. It’s available on Amazon.com and at Umbrage.com.
McDonough has taught photography at the Pratt Institute, Yale University, Cooper Union, Marymount College, Parsons School of Design, and Fordham University, and has worked as a freelance photographer and paste-up mechanical artist. He has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation and has had work displayed in numerous public and private collections including the Museum or Modern Art, the New York Public Library, the DeCordova Museum, the Dreyfus Corporation, the Lila Acheson Wallace Print Collection, and the Joseph Seagram’s Collection. He is currently represented by the Sasha Wolf Gallery in New York and lives in Brooklyn with his wife and their two children.
