Beautiful People of New York

Alfred González has been photographing people on the streets of New York his whole career. For the past four years he has been immersed in capturing well over 250 people, from all walks of life, in his travels around the city on his bicycle and when weather doesn't permit in his car. He mainly shoots with his medium format Mamiya 7 rangefinder camera and exclusively in black and white film. For a while there was a backlog of about 150 rolls of film to develop. Diligently racing to his basement most mornings at 6:30 am Alfred developed 3 - 4 rolls of film a day and hung them to dry till he got back home from his art gallery. Upon getting home, he cut the film into strips and then scans the negatives and the cycle begins again the next morning. As a practice, Alfred promises everyone he photographs a digital copy once he develops and scans the film. Promises made promises kept - Alfred finds no greater joy than when his subjects get back to him to talk about the picture(s) he sends them. He has spoken to all of them and has learned a little about them as they have about him. Alfred makes it a point to give homeless people in these photographs some money and on some occasions the sandwich his wife Eileen prepared for him before leaving his home that morning.

In this show you will be viewing a fraction of Alfred's encounters with the many people he has interacted with in his travels around New York.