The Curiosity of the World Deserves Witnesses

“My photograph was made on the corner of 79th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, in New York City in 1993. I was returning home to my apartment across the street. As I was waiting for the traffic light to change, I looked to the side and saw this man with a book in his mouth. I quickly took the picture with my Leica M6 and color negative film,” Jeff Mermelstein recalls. It was only a very fast encounter, an instant later, the light turned green again, the moment had passed.

Born in 1957 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Mermelstein started photography at an early age: “My brother gave me a rangefinder camera as a Bar Mitzvah present when I turned 13 years old. I immediately fell in love with photography and started to develop film and make printsin my darkroom as a teenager,” the photographer explains. “I have a long history with Leica beginning with my first M6 when I was in my twenties. Fortunately, Leica also became aware of the photographer: “My first book Sidewalk was sponsored by Leica,” Mermelstein remembers. The incredible book was to win him the European Publishers Award for Photography in 1999.

Mermelstein is one of the great representatives of American street photography. He prefers to work in colour. He finds his constantly-surprising motifs in everyday life on the vibrant streets of New York City. His eye is always alert, on the lookout for the unexpected. The next surreal moment could be just around the street corner. His experience is immense and, with openness and insatiable curiosity, he manages to capture not just the visible, but also the invisible stories that may hide behind every fleeting moment and spontaneous gesture. Let us be witnesses to his curiosity!