Manhattan Newspaper Reader on Stone Steps Black and White Photography
An Open Newspaper Within The Heavy Stone Surroundings
The open newspaper hides his face and becomes the strongest detail in this Manhattan street photograph. I photographed the man seated on the stone steps of a large church building, with pale plastic bags gathered around his lower body. The visible headline, “Baghdad is under siege,” brings a distant event into an immediate street scene.
He was living on the street, using the belongings around him to help keep warm. I did not know his name or the story that brought him there. What stayed with me was the contrast between those circumstances and the ordinary act of reading about the wider world.
The black and white composition is built from several layers. Steps lead up toward the figure, while textured masonry and angled ledges surround him. His dark clothing recedes into the stone, but the bright pages and bags remain clearly separate. The newspaper is both a barrier to seeing his face and the detail that makes his presence most apparent.
I wanted the photograph to preserve that observation without filling in the unknown parts of his life. The architecture gives the scene weight and scale, while the paper keeps it centred on a person’s activity. I continue to return to the frame because it leaves questions open: a man reading on Manhattan steps, briefly seen within a city whose larger surroundings could so easily absorb him.
© Dan Kosmayer, 2006
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About My Fine Art Photography
Every photograph in my collection comes from my own travels, explorations, and years behind the camera.
I create my work as photographic art rather than mass-produced decoration. From street portraits and abandoned places to landscapes, architecture, and the unusual subjects I discover along the way, each image begins with something that made me stop and look.
My photographs are available in multiple sizes so the same image can work in anything from an intimate wall space to a large statement installation.
