Street Photography Magazine recently published an essay about Len Speier’s series of photographs while riding the M5 bus, which runs the length of Manhattan from the George Washington Bridge all the way down to South Ferry Terminal. The article can be read in PDF format by following this link: Len Speier and the M5 Bus.

Below are some photographs from recent exhibitions of Speier’s work in New York, Vermont, and Los Angeles.

Mickey in Tub

Protective Fences, No. Eastham, Cape Cod

Hands, Philadelphia

Ali website Blog by Peter Angelo Simon

4/2/2015

The knocking and the voice came through my motel door at 4:30 a.m. “Grab your pants and your camera, the champ is running!” The sun was just breaking through the trees when I jumped out of the car and began shooting. Muhammad Ali was ahead of me jogging along the rural Pennsylvania black top, his breath visible in the early morning cold. A cow watched from a field of daisies as he passed.

I was in and out of the car, not up to running five miles before breakfast. As he ran by a cornfield, Ali raised his arms in a victorious salute .

At the end of the run he jabbed at the air and danced in the road, cooling down, with me shooting all the while. “Get this,” he said. I raised my camera positioning for a vertical. Ali pulled up his sweatshirt and the rubber liner inside it. As I shot water poured out. “It’s called letting out the sweat,” he said.  At that moment I realized that Ali had got me. He understood that I was not interested in him posing and mugging for the camera but in observing the reality of his process of preparation for the comeback heavyweight world championship fight in Africa a month away.

The people genius was right. I was writing public affairs documentary films for television when I discovered my how much excitement and pleasure photography gave me. Edward R. Murrow had said television was like reporting with a one-ton pencil. Now the pencil weighed 33 pounds with camera and recorder unattached but in sync. The Living Camera verite films that Ricky Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker, and a few others were making were devoted to capturing “the feeling of being there.” And that was precisely what I aspired to do with still photography.

I was astounded by what I found at Ali’s camp. “If there’s a secret to my fights, it’s how I prepare,” Ali had said. The place had an air of artistry and imagination: log cabins, magic tricks, huge power stones bearing the names of boxing greats, poetry and humor. In the next two days I went everywhere with Ali: an old people’s home; an exhibition match; watching him practice the “Rope-a-Dope;” taking tea and talking poetry with a visitor. I shot 33 rolls in those two days. Ali said nobody had ever taken so many pictures of him.

In 1974, Muhammad Ali was notoriously fast on his feet and quick with his tongue. Today speech and movement are a challenge. Well wishers worldwide continue to cherish his spirit and take inspiration from his extraordinary life.

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www.alifightersheaven.com

http://www.ny1.com/nyc/brooklyn/news/2015/03/9/former-times-photographer-still-enjoys-capturing-change.html

A legendary New York Times photographer who spent nearly 40 years capturing New York City at it’s finest moments is focusing his famous lens on a new project. NY1’s Cheryl Wills filed the following report.

From his immaculate stoop in Fort Greene, Chester Higgins marvels at how his neighborhood has changed over the four decades that’s he’s lived there. But not to worry he’s captured every moment.

He was still in his pajamas when he snapped a snowy shot that graced the paper of record, above the fold. And one of the Brooklyn Bridge that the Times tinted red for Valentine’s Day in the 1980s.

“I found the one place where I could get a little sun coming through the fog,” recalls Higgins.

Higgins spent 38 years at The New York Times capturing New York at its finest moments. He retired from the paper in December but he’s not really retired. He’s still working on new projects like one he calls Apparitions – leaves from his trees in the backyard.

His images spoke volumes and one might say helped to elect an underdog mayor in 1989. When David Dinkins ran for mayor in New York City Higgins was the only photographer who volunteered to cover his campaign from start to finish.

“You tend to learn how to be sensitive to the long shots,” says Higgins.

He is also sensitive to African causes. He’s documented Africa in all of its splendor and also photographed Nelson Mandela numerous times. But his passion was not the larger than life figures. He relished ordinary folks, people he met on the street like one woman who stopped him dead in his tracks in Brooklyn.

“The calmness of her, and her beauty I thought just said it all,” says Higgins.

Chester Higgins says he will continue to do what he does best, whether it’s from his perch in Brooklyn or a remote hamlet in West Africa.

 APPARITIONS by Chester Higgins Jr.

Kobek – copyright Chester Higgins Jr.

http://www.loeildelaphotographie.com/2015/02/24

To see more work from this series

http://www.chesterhiggins.com/portfolios_artists.html?gallery=portfolios_apparitions

http://www.jackmitchell.com/store/

Anne Kingman Page who originally joined APAG as the representative for Charlotte Brooks photography, recently opened a new gallery in Maine called KINGMAN GALLERY. www.kingmangallery.com

Weegee’s Guide to New York: Weegee was here…

Larry Racioppo will be speaking about his Good Friday photographs at the Brooklyn Public Library on March 25, 2015

http://www.bklynlibrary.org/calendar/jesus-brooklyn-four-good-central-library-brooklyn-032515

www.larryracioppo.com

 Story about the shoot as told by Jean Bubley

Esther photographed Einstein for Life Magazine on his 74^th birthday. He normally didn’t like photographers, but he had agreed to a photo shoot because there was a big celebration in honor of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He thought he had agreed to a one hour photo session. She thought she had the whole day. After an hour he started to leave, but he noticed that Esther looked disappointed. He asked why and she explained. Since she had been so unobtrusive, he let her follow him around for the rest of the day.

She photographed him at home, and at his office at Princeton, and on the walk home. One of the photos shows him walking along the road in the same direction as the auto traffic. The Life editors chastised her for photographing Einstein walking on the wrong side of the road. But she replied, “Who was I to tell Einstein where to walk?” They used that photo as the lead-in for the story.

http://discovermagazine.com/special-reports/Einstein

www.estherbubley.com

Mary Delaney Cooke

http://www.27east.com/news/article.cfm/East-Hampton-Village/95812/A-Love-Story-Jerry-Cooke-And-Mary-Delaney 

For more information about Jerry Cooke go to www.jerrycookearchives.com