Carrie Boretz’s Street Scenes: ‘A Second of Humanity in the Midst of the Chaos’

Orchard Street (1975): “The internship was a wondrous way to begin my photographic journey into this new life,” says Boretz of her start with the Village Voice in 1975, working with staff photographer Fred McDarrah. “It was a relationship you dream about having. Support, praise, constructive criticism, and a wide berth to be myself.”

Rizzoli Bookstore, West 57th Street (1975)

Philippe Petit, Washington Square (1975)

Street Games Championship finals, Thompson Street, Greenwich Village (1976)

Couple on Subway (1978)

Bleecker Street and Carmine Street (1978)

Sisters, West 12th Street and Sixth Avenue (1978)

West Village pier, Hudson River (1978)

East 42nd Street between First and Second Avenues (1978)

Hudson Street, West Village (1978)

East 14th Street and First Avenue (1977): “The weather was a big factor in where I headed out,” says Boretz. “I pursued pedestrians that traveled above the streets in cold weather and went underground in the heat. Always heading out instead of hiding out was the outlook you had to take, even covering a beat such as the climate. I was often freezing or sweating much of the days back then.”

East 57th Street (1979)

11th Street and Seventh Avenue, (1979): “In the mid-Seventies when I moved into this area, it was heavily populated with mom-and-pop stores, beauty salons catering to the older generation of women, small family restaurants in which they knew what you wanted before you even ordered. The hospital is now gone from that corner and a high-end high-rise has replaced it. The small neighborhood feel now is filled with tourists or millennials with money to burn. The village regulars who have died off, or have been forced to move out because of crazy high rents — they were relatable and real and approachable.“

50th Street and Lexington Avenue (1980)

14th Street and Seventh Avenue (1987)

Women’s Conservancy Luncheon, Conservancy Garden, Central Park (1993)

Women’s Conservancy Luncheon, 103rd and Fifth Avenue (1993)

Playground, West 43rd Street and Ninth Avenue (1993)

Locked car, West 114th Street and Riverside Drive (1994)

Chinese New Year, Chinatown (1994): “I loved shooting in Chinatown and it wasn’t because I could have a great, cheap lunch,” says Boretz. “When I was there recently on jury duty, I went out and took pictures during my lunch break and thought I was back in time. Filled with people coming and going, playing, exercising, working, eating, the old with the young, family life so in abundance down there. It is a few square blocks filled with a vibrancy any photographer would seize. The same sensations, smells, and old-world feel — little has changed.”

M4 bus, Fifth Avenue (1993): “There are a number of pictures I feel pretty strong about,” says Boretz of her favorite photographs. “The woman and child connecting through a bus window has become a top contender. The woman exited the bus and walked over to the window. My camera was there as she placed her hand up to the window to shadow the young child’s hand.“