"Harvey Stein: 50 Years of Street Photography (Part 1)"

“It's like a hunt. How do you find identical twins on the street? On the subway, I saw a set of older twins. They were in their seventies. Raymond and Al. I went up to them and said, could I photograph you? I'm doing a book on twins, and they said yes. They lived on the Upper West Side, so did I. I said, could I call you? We don't have a phone. They're really poor. They lived in one room. It's called a single room occupancy. I don't think we have those anymore. They were 71. They were Irish. I went and knocked on their door. They gave me their address. I knocked on their door, they said, come back another time. Knocked on their door. No, no, we can't see you now.

Third time was a charm and they let me in, and I had about a half an hour, and I did an amazing photograph of them.”

 Intro:

Greetings! and Welcome back to The Camera Café Show! The podcast where we brew up inspiration for your photography journey. I am your host Tom Jacib, with Tetiana Malovana and Richard Clark sitting in the back of the classroom like eager students listening to this special interview. Today, I am sharing my mic with someone who I am fortunate to call a friend and doesn’t just photograph the streets—he owns them. 

For over 50 years, Harvey Stein has roamed New York City, capturing those fleeting, once-in-a-lifetime moments and portraits that define street photography at its best. If you’ve ever wondered how a master works the streets, gets up close, and turns everyday chaos into art—well, buckle up, because this episode is basically a masterclass talk in 2 parts on street photography. 

Harvey is not just a photographer—he’s an educator, author, and storyteller. He’s published 10 photography books until now, taught countless students from 1976 onwards, and still shoots film like it’s nobody’s business.

In this first part, Harvey and I dive into: 

His insane five-decade journey in street photography— how he started out and how some things have changed.

What makes a strong image and how to approach strangers (without getting punched). 

New York energy—why it’s an endless playground for photographers and why he’s been shooting there for half a century!   

Film vs. digital, and why he’s still loading rolls like it’s 1975.

We’ll walk a bit through his book on Twins, Coney Island People 50 Years and Artists Observed, while he discusses the pictures.

This is one of those episodes where you just listen and learn from a legend. So grab a coffee, take notes, and let’s hit the streets with the Master, Harvey Stein! 

Tom: Harvey, welcome on our show tonight. It's a pleasure having you here and having a talk about your photography and your life.

Harvey: Thank you. It's great to be here. Finally. We planned this for a while, right?

Tom: We planned it for a while, but we finally made it happen and just in time, before you take your next flight to India.

Harvey: Yeah, I never thought this day would come.

Tom: Harvey, if your Leica could talk, what would it say about you?

Harvey: Oh, that I'm a good photographer. I'm a good guy. I take care of the camera, although it's dropped many times and it looks like it's a wreck. It's one of my best friends. I love the camera. I actually bought a new digital Leica camera last week. Up until now had M2’s, M4’s, M6’s. I had a digital Leica, the black and white M8. I used it for a year, didn't like it, put it aside for five years and cashed that in and got a new Q3.

Tom: Right.

Harvey: I’m gonna learn that. But with the object of maybe cutting down my work in the dark room and shooting more digitally. Right now I shoot 93.5% film and about 7% digitally. I'm gonna probably shift that, but slowly.

I have 400 rolls of film waiting for me to develop. So I gotta finish that. And I'm still gonna, I'm going to India soon, as you mentioned, in a week. I'm gonna take 20 rolls of film. Normally I take 60 rolls of film but I'm gonna shoot more digitally and less film. And I'm gonna start that process.

Why? I lost my dark room of 34 years with this woman who ran the dark room, she had the lease on the facility. It was a basement in a walk up on West 50th Street here in Manhattan. And she was tired of it. She didn't want me to take up the lease. It was a lousy dark room, but I managed and now I'm looking for a dark room space. So with that in mind, it's just a signal that maybe I should do less dark room work.

But I like it, you know, on a good day, I go in from nine in the morning and don't come out till nine at night. I make about nine or ten prints. Just eight by ten, but four versions of each print. And it's a fulfilling day. I am all the time there except for about a half an hour where I get a sandwich and go to the bathroom and stuff.

So I'm gonna miss it. I'm slowly, slowly, maybe going toward that. Not that I really want to, but it's getting old. I've been doing dark room since 1970. I would say 1972. Nonstop. Nonstop. You know, a couple times a month because it's not at home and I have to travel and get everything ready.

 I have probably 25,000 prints in my office here. They're pretty well marked in archival boxes. My negatives, I can find a negative, I can give you a print. On the back of the print will be a number. I could find a negative to that print. If I can read the number off the back of the print, I can find that negative in two minutes from the 1980s or 1970s. It is that good. My system of filing or storing prints is not as good, but I always thought the raw material, the negative was the goal. You lose the negatives, you're screwed. If you lose the print, you can always make another print.

Tom: I can test you on that maybe on the next podcast, Harvey, I give you two minutes and you'll find me a negative somewhere.

Harvey: I'll give you a print yeah sure! So I have a whole system. I put that number on the back of the paper that I'm gonna print. So I have the negative numbers that matches the print numbers. I make contact sheets. I can spend all day in the dark room making 50, 60 contact sheets. I save them up to make.

The contact sheets have the number, and the negative file preserver is what I put the negatives into, that has a number, that's where the number originates. Here's my numbering system, not that you're interested in it! First the year. So it's 25, dash, then the number of times I’ve gone out that year to shoot. That number might be 35. That's the 35th time that year I've gone out to photograph, and I keep track of that. So it's the year, then 35 for the time I've gone out, then C1, there'll be a C one C meaning cassette. It could be R1 too. So, C1 that's one roll of film cut up into strips of six, and it's in a negative file preserver of six by six. Then C2, C3, C4, C5, C6.

I'll have six negative file sheets with six rolls, each roll cut up into strips of six by six by six, by six, by six by six. Six slots in total

I don't know why we got into this, but here it is. Let's see. If you can see it? I'm gonna read it: 22, that's the year, 31, C2. I just developed this yesterday. There's my number. Here's my subject matter and here's my date. So the date was July 25th, 2022 East Marion Eastport, Long Island, a town I visited, way out in the hot summer of July, I shot a roll of film. This is one roll cut into six strips and filed in an archival sheet that contains a hundred at a time. It's called print file negative preservers. I should get a comm. I should get a commission on this.

Tom: Yes.

Harvey: Not that anyone's shooting film nowadays. This is such useless information. I can't believe I’ve wasted your time.

Tom: Harvey, this is from July, 2022 and you just developed this yesterday?

Harvey: Yesterday yes.

Tom: So you are almost 3 years behind.

Harvey: Two and a half years behind. I have stuff from 1980 I haven't developed yet! But I'm not doing that because I know it's ruined because of the light leaks into the film.

I've done that and I have some pictures I could show you. They're in my Coney Island book, my last Coney Island book from 1980 that I printed, and I developed probably three years ago, and they're in my book. I love them so much. I just can't keep up with what I shoot.

If I shoot digitally, I'll be, you know, I'm not in the dark room. I'm not processing film. I process 4 rolls a time. It takes about an hour and a half. So it's very boring. It's not in the dark. It's in a steel tank with four stainless steel reels. And it's very boring. I read the paper. It's right behind me, my film developing room is right behind me. So I proceed and I'm okay with it. I'm a creature of habit.

I go into the dark room all day, I play around in the dark room, and I have 25,000 prints here. And I don't even know what I have. I know mostly what I have but not everything.

I just found…I went to Haiti in 1984 to shoot the carnival. I went with Bruce Gilden, who you might have known.

Tom: Yeah.

Harvey: We were friends, and I went with a couple other photographers, Charles Gatewood, who passed away about five years ago. He's a fabulous photographer, really well known then. No one talks about him now. I went with a friend, Jim Coleman, a photographer. We went for eight days for Carnival. And I made prints of that, 45 or 50 prints, and I couldn't find the prints in a box. I have archival boxes and the box was mislabelled.

I was going through all my boxes and I just found them last July. They're priceless, they're gorgeous. I love them. So I am excited. I made a new discovery. I feel they were lost for nearly 40 years. And tomorrow I'm going into the dark because I found the negatives quickly 'cause I have the numbering system, and I'm making prints of more photographs that I didn't print at the time. I'm gonna add to it and hopefully I'll do a book of it, a small book, maybe 60 prints, 70 prints of Haiti 1984.

Tom: There you go, Harvey. Sign me up for a book. If you make it, there are only 59 to sell then.

Harvey: Yeah. We'll see, I'm, I probably am dreaming. I probably will never get a book done. I mean, I'll have enough for the book but to find a publisher these days for books, is not easy. And one that doesn't charge you money. The new model for publishing books is that the publishers want you to pay for it or pay in part for it. And the reason they want you to is 'cause they can't sell enough books. My first book sold out 10,000 copies, my twin’s book in 1978. It sold out within a year. But they won't print 10,000 books now to sell.

They’ll print 1000, if you're lucky, 3000. So it's changed tremendously because people are not buying photo books. My first book costs $10 now online. It used to be $50. But no one's reading now. Not many people are buying books, it’s all internet driven, you know, we're online, we're not reading newspapers, magazines, we're watching Netflix a lot. So it's a tough market.

Tom: People are switching from film to digital looking at you, that you're also switching now to digital, so time moves on.

Harvey: not going that far. I'm, I, I'm slowly gonna switch. Yeah. I still have the ability and the, I don't have a dark room now, but I'm borrowing dark rooms. It's not a great situation, but yeah.

I think within a year I probably won't be doing dark room work, but I have to catch up with all the film and I have stacks and stacks of contact sheets I haven't even looked at, even though I've developed the film.

I can only do 10 negatives a day. I'm printing once or twice a month now. I'll never catch up and that that's okay and resigned to it. There's no choice or get someone to print for me. That cost a lot of money, as you know.

Tom: Yes. Harvey, let's walk a moment back because now everybody knows what you're doing now, but just to be sure, Harvey, you're 84 now?

Harvey: I'm not revealing that.

Tom: Okay. But it's online, so it’s out there!

Harvey: 80 something, I forget, I don't know. I don't remember.

Tom: You were born in 1941 in Pittsburgh, right, in Pennsylvania?

Harvey: Yes, in Pittsburgh. I was there, but I don't remember the year!

Tom: I was going to ask you, you know that Eugene Smith, he did his project on Pittsburgh there in ‘55 or ‘56. You never remember seeing him?

Harvey: No, I didn't know a thing about photography. I was a high school and I didn't know a thing, I never heard of him. Of course, I know him now and I have all his books. And he did a great project on Pittsburgh. I didn't know him.

The first time I picked up a camera was 1963. I was in the German army, oh, I was in Germany in the Army. Haha, that’s a good one.

Tom: Haha

Harvey: I was stationed in a city called a Aschaffenburg in Germany, it’s near Frankfurt. I had some free time. I was a second lieutenant and I had 44 men under me. I thought, wow, it'd be interesting to photograph the men, while we were working. I was in the combat engineers, so I had trucks, we had mines, we laid mines, we did dynamite of bridges. We built bridges over the Rhine River, and we did infantry. 40% of our mission was infantry, 60% building roads. We built roads and we had war exercises. We were not at war.

I liked Germany a lot and they had a dark room on the base, and I had some free time so I bought a German camera. I bought a Zeiss icon camera for a hundred dollars, a good camera Zeiss Icon. And I taught myself to shoot and print. They had a dark room and I had free time, and someone helped me, I guess. I don't remember. I spent a lot of time printing, shooting film, around, shooting my men working. I don't know if it was legal then no one said not to I couldn't. I took some German lessons. I went out with German people a little bit. That was in the sixties. And so. I'm not sure what my point is now…

Tom: Can it be you bought a car and you toured around Europe, something like this?

Harvey: Well, yeah, I got out in Europe after my two years in the Army and drove around for three months, rented a car with a buddy who got out at the same time and we drove 8,000 miles around Europe and I photographed like a tourist and liked it a lot.

I came back to the States and I had that camera. I started shooting in the States and liked it. It became a hobby and then it became a serious hobby, and then I quit working. Well, I went to New York to go to Columbia, did more school and got a master's degree in business. In New York City I took some classes in photography. That was 1971 or 1972. I worked until 1979 in the corporate world, in advertising mostly and then I quit. I did a book from 1972 to 1977 on identical twins, and the book came out in 1978, and that gave me the courage and the confidence to quit work.

I quit work in January of 1979. I was on Madison Avenue making a good salary, to become a photographer. I didn't know if I could succeed or not, but I was shooting a lot in my free time while I was working on my vacation time, whatever, and did this whole book on my own. I knew nobody but started meeting people.

So I went to a publisher, EP Dutton, and they said yes right away, 'cause the book, it's the best idea I've ever had, to photograph identical twins from birth to death. I shot 155 identical twins in six years and interviewed them about their twinship. I got a writer to write about the psychology of twinship, that's what my book is about.

I interviewed people and they said, having a twin is never being alone, but it's never knowing who you really are. Quotes like that. I look at my twin and it's as if I'm looking into a mirror and I'm seeing myself. At 10 I'm never alone, at the age of 30, I wanna be alone and get rid of my twin. Most twins were unhappy about being a twin. They would've rather, if they had the choice and they say, well, I don't know what it's like to be a singleton, but I think if I had a choice, I would like to have not been a twin. So I was fascinated by it.

I love doing it, and it's like a hunt. How do you find identical twins? I went to a twin convention to get older twins. How do you find a 70-year-old twins on the street? On the subway, I saw a set of older twins. They were in their seventies. Raymond and Al. I went up to them and said, could I photograph you? I'm doing a book on twins. By that time, I probably knew I was doing a book and they said yes. They lived on the Upper West Side. So did I. I said, could I call you? We don't have a phone. They're really poor. They lived in one room. It's called a single room occupancy. I don't think we have those anymore. It’s for poor people. They were 71. They were Irish. I went and knocked on their door. They gave me their address. I knocked on their door, they said, come back another time. Knocked on their door. No, no, we can't see you now.

Third time was a charm and they let me in and I had about a half an hour and I did an amazing photograph of it. I'm gonna show it to you

Tom: Sure.

Harvey: Here it is. Okay. I'm gonna share my screen. Can I do that?

Tom: Yeah, sure.

Harvey: Okay. So let me show you allow, right okay. So here's the youngest set of twins I did.

These are three-month-old twins. And what I did, I look for twin environments and all my twins mostly are side by side, everyone except a couple. So, I'm looking for twin environments. I walked into this apartment; this is in Yonkers. This was a coworker of mine. I was working at an ad agency and the guy, his wife, just had a baby and he told me she had two babies, which is nice for me. I don't know if it was nice for him. I walked in, they were sleeping, we waited till they woke up and these two little baby chairs, whatever you call them, were on the table just like that. I saw two of these, and a round table that's symmetrical and a line going through on the table, through the two seats, and then twin furniture pieces. I used flash, bounce flash. This is probably 1974, 75.

One bear was on the left by the crib. One bear was on the right by the crib. I said to the parents, can you bring them together? The bears? Yeah. They said, yeah, the parents are behind me getting their attention for me. I shot them but little did I realize they're both left-handed and they're both drinking at the same time. Whoa. So there's a lot of serendipity in everything we shoot, right?

This is Bam Bam and Chichi, and this was at the Easter parade one year in the seventies, there were thousands of people around thousands. It’s in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral, fifth Avenue and 50th Street. No one was on the stairs. So I brought, with permission of the parents, brought the twins up and started shooting 'em. All of these are wide angle lenses, they're all 21 millimetres. That's what I shoot with. I went close and I photographed them. As much as they look alike, they're different. The coat is different. She's holding a lollipop. She's not even looking at me, darn her. I want everyone looking at me, you know? So this was great. And then 10 photographers surrounded me. I didn't mind. I got my photograph, and I like to share, but I wanna be the first one.

Here's the two twins that are side by side. I placed them like this. They were in a parade. I took them out of the parade under this tree. It was so glaring, and they were so blonde. And I photographed it. If their heads were like, if his head went over, I wouldn't use this. I love the line, which symbolizes the separation between them.

Okay. This is a set of albino twins. They could not be outside even in the shade for more than five or 10 minutes. That's why they're wearing sunglasses. That's why we're in the shade. I only had a little time with them. We walked down their street. They were in the Bronx, and I'm looking for an environment that is double. So I saw the door that I could split, I saw the railings that I could use to echo the theme of Doubleness twin ship, relationships, dependency, etcetera. And I asked them to be close, and this is how they stood.

I loved the visual quality of twins. I only photographed identical twins. I tried non-identical, didn't work.

The, these are twins at their birthday party. I told 'em to be friends. They became a pretzel. This is their double bunk bed, and I really like the patchwork on their shirts and at their knees along with sort of the perch of the linoleum floor. So that went really well.

These Are ventriloquist 16 years old. They dress alike, and they dress their dummies alike, but they said we didn't want our dummies to be identical because then we would totally get confused! Their names are Kim and Kern. And this is Rufus. This is, yeah, his is Rufus. This dummy on the left and the other one is Randy, he’s a cool suave ladies’ man, debonair and rich. Rufus is a working class, buck teeth, silly clown like guy.

Kern said he could not work the personality of Rufus and Kim said he could not work the personality of Randy. Amazing. They've been through a shrink, and this is what they told me and I can remember it vividly. Okay.

So the progression of the book is getting older. These, they really like being twins. And I said, okay, could you show that? And I like the circularity of their hands and arms, the circle. I photographed them at a twin convention at a hotel. That's why we're in this situation.

These are twin dentists that hate being dentists but would work together one day a week at a clinic in West York City. They said, if we work all the time, we would probably kill ourselves because we hate being dentists. And we'd see how unhappy the other person was. I walked into the clinic, and I saw all these moulds. I said, this is a perfect place to photograph them. I want the environment to reflect something about them. That's why I shoot wide angle lenses, to get close and yet still have enough in the background to reveal things about who they are and what they do and what they're about.

I think this is Lada and Lavona, not sure which is which. And Albert and Al or something like that. The women said we were 42 years old. We always wanted to marry twins. And we held out. One day we saw these guys on the street, we started talking, blah, blah, blah. the next thing you knew, we were all engaged. And she said, if I met him first, I wouldn't have been attracted. And she said the same thing to him. And I said, well, do you ever get confused and switched? And they nearly walked out of the room when I asked that question. Amazing.

So we're getting older, and this is the second oldest. They're about 68. They never dressed un-alike a day in their lives. Always alike, never married. This is in Pennsylvania. I read about them in a little publication, I got on the phone and found them. You could do that. And I tried to place them in an environment like a chair. There wasn't anything twin about their place, so I did this, and they held hands and all that.

And then here's Raymond and Al. These are the two twins that I mentioned that I met on the subway. They lived in a single room with a bed, a table, two chairs, and a refrigerator. And that's all they had. But they were jolly and fine and friendly. And it was summer, they were just wearing shorts, no shirts. And so, I had 'em sit, I edged them into this position. They were sitting on the bed. There wasn't much to sit on. I said, can you get in bed? They sleep together. They did and covered up and I photographed them again with a bounce flash.

This is the last I mean, they are 71 and I could have found older twins. I think I had a lead or two, but they were so good that I said, I can't not do it. And I wanted to end with them. So it worked out pretty well. Okay. Sorry, I got rolling on this now!

Tom: No, it's okay Harvey, haha.

Harvey: So that was the first project I did and the first book I did. And to me, it's probably the best idea I've ever had. I really loved doing it.

Then my next book was on artists. This took me six years. The next book took me six years. Portraits of artists in their studio with studio lighting. I did Warhol, Rauschenberg, very famous artists, and I interviewed them. It's called Artist Observed and it sold out 10,000 copies. The twin book sold out 10,000 copies. And that whet my appetite for doing books.

I teach classes on how to do a book. I've done 10 books by now. I love doing books. That, to me, is more important than having a show or having an exhibition. I do teach and I love teaching and we can talk about that, but I know there's other things to talk about. It's just wonderful to make a book, but it's hard work. It can be frustrating, but it's very rewarding. To me, it’s the most rewarding thing I could do. I get my work out and I leave something behind. I don't have kids. I have a nice, beautiful wife, and I hope we're happy.

Tom: Now I don't know if we continue with the books or…I was going to ask you Harvey, who inspired you early on, but I think then we should talk about Ben Fernandez, no?

Harvey: Yeah. Yeah, I would. My answer to that question would be Ben Fernandez, who was my first teacher. You know, I can't even remember how I met him. I'm sure I can, if I can think of it, but Ben was a street photographer. I took a class with him. I guess that's where I met him probably in 1968 or 1969. There were not very many photo classes. The New School didn't have the photo department. There were very few. I think Columbia had something, NYU had a program and Ben started a program at the public theatre at Lafayette Street in downtown New York. And the building was a huge library. It had many floors. It had a basement. And Ben somehow got permission to start a school there and he set up classrooms, but not a dark room. And I took a class with him and he said to me, get a Leica, get a 21 millimetre lens and go to Coney Island and photograph. So that was influential. He was a big, burly, tough east Harlem Hispanic man, but with a heart of gold. He was ba-ba-ba but he had a heart of gold, and he loved his students. And I was one of his early students, me and Jo Franco, who became a New York Times photographer several other people. He invited me to his house to start printing 'cause there were no dark rooms available. And I did that for a year. I figured he doesn't really want me here so much and he lived in New Jersey, so I'd have to take a out a bus to get there.

And he taught me a little bit and let me use the dark room on my own. And then I started a career, and he asked me to teach him at the theatre, which I did for a year. And then I started teaching at ICP. I think his school sort of faded away. Then he became the head of the New School and started the photography department there and asked me to teach. And I did that for about eight years. He photographed Martin Luther King and did a book on him. He did several books. He did a lot of tough street photography. He did not shoot war. I'm not sure all that he did. But you know, then we grew apart and he stopped teaching, but he was very influential on me and many, many other people. And then he got ill and he died about four years ago, I think. Do you know his work?

Tom: Yeah, yeah. I know his work on Martin Luther King, and I was wondering how he got so close to him, how he got the access to be so intimate with him.

Harvey: I am not sure. I never asked. Did you ever, you never interviewed him?

Tom: No, no. A pity.

Harvey: I think it's important starting out that you have an advocate is the word I use. Someone that, in you, champions you, can encourage you. Ben was very encouraging. He did get, like, I photographed some of the  stuff he did on the street demonstration.

So that's what he was known for. And I wouldn't say jealous, but he saw that I was really good and maybe, he wanted me to go off on my own. Not be so tied to him. And I thought, that's a good. So that's what happened. He went on and did other things, he did a lot, I think he did video and stuff, and movies. I should be more knowledgeable about his career.

But yeah, I mean, and that's why I teach because I got a lot of help. I took a printing class with George Theiss, who just passed away two weeks ago or a week ago. That’s sad. I saw George every once in a while. Ken Haman, it's a photographer from the seventies and the eighties. Took some good classes. I enjoyed the classes, and I went on to teach. Ben got me started, and then I started at ICP in 1976. I've taught at ICP from 1976 to now. I'm going to start a new class next month and I've missed only one year of teaching at ICP. I've taught every year since 1976 in one place or another. But at ICP every year, from 1976 until now. I went to RIT, Rochester Institute of Technology and taught there. And one year, I could do both here and there, but it was too hard to maintain. I taught at RIT for two years. I love teaching and I still do that so. It's very rewarding and I learn from my students, you need someone to encourage you to go to who you could talk with. It's great hearing lectures. It's great reading a book seeing a film on someone, but you want a personal connection too. Right now, I teach only, well, I do workshops. I do them in person for myself. But at ICP and Los Angeles Centre of Photography, I'm only doing virtual classes now since Covid.

I've been to India nine times and in February, I'm going to India for my 10th time, since 2013. And I'm working on a book. I have some pictures, but maybe we won't get to that to show of India. I've done workshops, in China, Japan, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and then Europe. I don't want to go to Europe particularly, but I've done it.

Tom: You went to Italy.

Harvey: Yes, I did a book on Italy. I did I think 12 workshops in Italy and produced a book on Mexico too. I did workshops in Mexico for many years, and I went there on my own. So, traveling is amazing and important. India 10 people signed up for the workshop. I was there last year twice. One with a workshop and one just shooting for another book.

We're planning a trip to Nepal this year at this time next year to Bangladesh. I want to go to Bangladesh. I've read about Bangladesh and the photography and the people there. So, it's my way of learning and shooting. Being involved and working with other people at the same time. So, it combines many satisfactions for me, and that's what we have to do. We have to find what we love in our lives. I started out as an engineer, and I worked in business. Then I changed my profession into marketing and advertising. I liked engineering for a time. I liked marketing for a time, but I really didn't love it. I wanted always to be creative. I tried to write, I tried to paint, I did ceramics. I picked up the camera and it took me some years to learn and do stupid things. And then I came to New York, I went to Columbia and at the same time I was taking photo classes. I was split for a while. then the photography just became more important, and I said I could make much more money doing work and working in corporate America, but I wouldn't love it. And I really love being creative, being on my own, not punching a clock, not having to be anywhere unless I determined that I had to be. I teach and that me a regimen.

I'm pretty in control and responsible and I love that. And so now I've been a full-time photographer since 1979, and I think I've had a good career. I'm not famous. I don't need to be famous, but I love doing books and I work only on my own projects. No one's telling me what to shoot.

I don't do assignment work. did some early on I liked it, but I didn't like it. I resented a little bit, oh, you're taking up my time. And I made sure for any assignment, I would try to shoot it my way also for me and maybe give the clients some images that they didn't think about and would like, and once in a while they said, yeah, this works better than what we told you to do.

I don't use a lot of equipment. I use likes mostly film. Now I have a Q3, just got it last week. I'm learning it, but it's similar to my film camera. And I have a Canon 5D Mark II, which is about 12 or 13 years old that I've shot all my India pictures with. I've shot pinhole, made my own pinhole cameras. I have a gorgeous pinhole camera that's a one of a kind that someone made for me. I've shot Holga or plastic children's cameras. I have work on my website with the Holga, and with pinhole. You know, I experiment a little bit or used to, now I'm pretty focused on street photography portraiture. I have three or four book projects in the works. At least three, maybe five. And maybe one or two will see the light of day that keeps me busy and I'm shooting.

Tom: Harvey, street photography has always been that core of your work.

Harvey: Yeah

Tom: What is it that that excites you the most about it? Is it the places or the ever-changing people you find in them?

Harvey: It’s the people and the place. I guess it's a combination. That's a good question. Like I've gone to Coney Island for 50 years. In 2022, in the fall of 2022, I came out with Coney Island People 50 years. So, it's the place, but it's the people in the place and how they use the place. I'm fascinated by public behaviour, people, how people behave in public, by going up to people and strangers and talking to them. And seeing how I react to them, how they react to me, and how they react to the camera.

Some people say no when they put their hand out like this. I love it. I always shoot it because I'm getting something and I'm getting a strong reaction. I'm getting emotion from the people rather than just; you know I don’t want them to smile because that's phony. I just want them to be there, and I'll do the rest. So, I love that. And I met, my ex-wife on the street photographing her. So, sometimes it leads to good things. It didn't work out very long, but it wasn't a mistake, we were together about three or four years. I've made friends, good friends. I have so many photo friends that I see on the street periodically. Or always at the same events that I would go to here in New York. That's how I met Bruce Gilden and Charles Gatewood. I meet any number of photographers and that's fun, but it's the people outdoors and in life and going where I don't belong. I go to East Harlem; I did a book on Harlem. No white people in the book. They're very kind. I had no trouble. How do I behave? How do I perform in a way? I've gone to East Side. I've gone to dangerous places. I don't look for danger. I look for enjoyment, fun. I go to Coney Island, the Polar Bear Swim Sunday in the freezing winter.

Tom: But you never go into the water Harvey.

Harvey: I

Tom: It disappoints me.

Harvey: But what?

Tom: It disappoints me. You'll never go inside the water.

Harvey: It's freezing! I'm working and my toes and feet get wet! I'm at the water's edge, so yeah, I'm not that brave. And I'm there for a purpose I think, and I enjoy myself and I know the polar bears and they know me, and they say hello and greet me. Half the people, I don't even know their names, but they know me 'cause I'm there often. Not so much now, but I have been.

My first publication in a magazine, I could show it to you. I have it here, a skinny man sitting on a rail the pier. I was a photographer with my Zeiss Icon camera, 35 millimetres. And it was let's see, July I probably shot it. And that December, that picture was published in Life Magazine.

Tom: Oh, cool!

Harvey: My first picture I ever had published. Holy shit. I should quit while I was ahead. I should have quit while I was ahead. Right?

Tom: Yeah, haha.

Harvey: I was really lucky and, it gave me a lot of incentive to continue. I just like the street. I like crowds. I like people. I like watching people. I like to go up to people. I go up to who I want to photograph. Not crazy people. Not nice looking necessarily. People, not beautiful women, some but some not. Some men, I mean, if they're outrageously or they tattooed or they just look different. My criteria are interesting looking and I get no, but my approach to street photo is not like most people. I try not to shoot candidly.

I want to go up and do what I would call street portraits. I consider this street photo. Some people do not. Some say street photography is candid. I don't believe that. If it's on the street, it's street photography. I shoot a 21mm to get close. Four feet, three feet, five feet. The environment, context of where they are in the hopes that that environment will say something about them.

And I like quirky, strange, unusual work. Not that my work is that, but I started out that way. It's not weird, I don't think, but I like to go to weird places or events because it's fascinating and it's visual. I'm looking for interesting places. So I'll go to the Halloween parade. I'll go to New Jersey and Asbury Park the, oh God, what's the name of the parade we photograph, you know, I got brain fog, you know, the people that are dead and come out and suck your blood…

Tom: Zombies?

Harvey: Vampires!

There's a march, a parade of vampires. They call it a march. I mean, I'll go to you know, try to go to interesting events around the city and photograph to better my chances of getting good photographs. But I'll walk around just with a camera also.

That’s harder but that's how I started. Yeah.

Outro:

And that’s a wrap folks on part one of my conversation with the magnificent Harvey Stein—a guy who has more street photography stories than I have memory cards.  

If you want to see the magic for yourself, go check out his work at [harveysteinphoto.com] and get your hands on one of his books, like his latest "Coney Island People 50 Years." If you’re a street photography lover, seriously, it’s a book you’ll want and need on your shelf.  

And guess what? We’re not done yet. Next time, Harvey dives even deeper into his creative process, teaching, his travels, his Mexico book and more legendary street stories. So stay tuned!  

If you liked this episode, hit subscribe, leave a review on Spotify or Apple podcasts, and share it with your fellow photographers. See you next time on The Camera Café Show for part two with Harvey Stein! And remember—if you see someone interesting on the street… lift up your camera and get that shot! Adios