Manhattan, NY (Louis)

by Gary Joseph Cohen  

Uploaded 1 Aug 2008 — 130 favorites

Manhattan, NY (Louis)

For the past fifty years, wherever you can find (or create) a NYC event, Louis has been there with his vintage Speed-Graphic, working the crowd and recording everyday history (for profit and romance). On the topic of romance, Louis reflects on why he became a photographer in the first place: to meet women (which apparently has worked too well...photography is also what has kept him single all these years).

"You photograph one woman," he says with velvety eloquence, "another one gets jealous."

Louis keeps a loose portfolio of polaroids and newspaper clippings on him, arranged in narrative order known only to the storyteller. Pulling an image from the deck, he selects a laminated image of Jackie Kennedy holding the same model camera as his, putting it in my hand:

"But you know, that's how Jackie met John Kennedy...she was a photographer, and approached him for a photograph. The rest is history."

While we often think of organized events as the fulcrum of the public eye, it's peripherally, behind the scenes where the 'professional-regulars' massage the incidental into significance, making sure nothing slips away unseen or unrecorded. Louis has taken this philosophy with him on yearly, working trips to New Orleans, and in his home town, Manhattan. It is in the latter where you're likely to find him at work with zen-like charm, recording and making history everyday, one polaroid at a time.

"And this is the person who inspired me to become a photographer in the first place," he notes as he replaces Jackie with the late, great photographer, Gordon Parks. The image shows a young Parks crouching before a propellor plane, the year around 1945. There is an uncanny resemblance between Louis' and his mentor's eyes. Both seem to be looking elsewhere, beyond the immediate frame of reference.

After chatting for about five minutes on 9th Avenue, we took a few photographs of each other, and shook hands. No more than ten seconds later, Louis was engaged in conversation with someone else, effortlessly balancing his time and energy between speaking and listening, leaning in close so as not to miss a beat.

In the JPG-COMMUNITY OP-ED photo essay.

Also in the Contact Lens photo essay.

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