The Streets of NYC - my first photo love.

 

The first time I ever got excited about photography was when my wheelchair broke on a trip to New York City.

I had brought a little point and shoot camera with me, like every tourist, and planned to visit all the major cites, but it seemed the universe had other plans for me. When I arrived to NYC, I found myself with a broken (airline damaged) wheelchair. With now no independence or way to get around, I was devastated.

I spent the majority of that first day in my hotel room, waiting for the airline to deliver a replacement wheelchair so that I could at least have some form of mobility. In defeat, I sat sulking about how my trip had gone to shit, looking out the window at the city I had hoped to be exploring.

Over the next couple days I would cycle through various hilarious wheelchairs, including an airport stroller and a granny scooter. I was far from independent but I was glad to at least get out. I wasn't able to make it to the major cites I had wanted but instead found myself spending the rest of my trip observing people, taking in the streets of new york....and taking pictures.

And that's how it started. At night in my room I would flip through the photos on the LCD of my 4megapixel camera and get excited about what I had recorded. I loved the relationship I had to the images and to the subjects in them. It felt like storytelling, and I began to realize things about my own perception. Needless to say...I was hooked. The rest is history.

Since then street photographer has always been something I go back to...and it will probably something I do forever. There is lots I want to say about it, but as a starting point I thought I would simply share some of the photos from that first trip...maybe not my best work, but cool to see where it all started.

All photos taken over the course of 3 days in May 2006.