About These Photos…
This website concentrates primarily on my New York based landscape photography. However, I’ve also included examples from other photo projects from over the years. Essentially, this website covers my involvement in photography from 1979 - present. Below are brief descriptions of these photo projects. For a more detailed description, click the “Photo Notes” tab on the homepage.
The New York Nature galleries contain photos from two ongoing landscape studies, “Urban Nature: A New York City Landscape Study” and “New York Nature: Landscapes of the Empire State.” The New York City nature photos are from project I began in 2005 and documents New York City’s natural spaces. Within a few years I expanded this natural landscape theme to include the entire state of New York. I plan to continue working on both these photo projects for the remainder of my life. My goal is to portray a sense of what New York looked before European settlement. As a result, I've generally avoided landscapes that have been heavily altered by man.
New York: Waterways is a collection of waterways from around the state.
New York: Waterfalls is a collection of waterfalls from around the state.
Bronx Blues: Morning Walks in Van Cortlandt Park is an ongoing project from morning walks in the Bronx’s Van Cortlandt Park. With this series of photographs, I’m attempting to convey a sense of moodiness within a dreamlike landscape. It's my hope that these photographs will allow the viewer to escape for a few moments into a mysterious and dreamlike world.
Street Photography: 1980's - 1990's My love of photography was inspired by the great street photographers of the mid-20th Century. These photographs are examples of my street photography from the late 1970’s through the early 1990’s.
Streets of Pittsburgh: 1979-1985 goes back to my photographic origins. Between 1979 and 1985 I roamed the streets of Pittsburgh photographing most anything that caught my attention. The street portraits reflect a largely forgotten group of city residents. Also included are photographs of many storefronts as well as buildings that have vanished from the Pittsburgh landscape. I consider these photographs to be a truthful and historic document of what the city looked like if you were roaming around the city on any given day in the early 1980's.
Street Work: Flowers in the City is a project I worked on in the mid-1990’s when I became less interested in street photography and more interested in the urban landscape. For years I thought about a photo project where nature would contrast with a gritty urban environment. In the mid-1990’s, while searching for a new photo project to work on, I decided to work on a flowers / urban landscape theme. However, this photo project had been on my mind as early as 1980 when I saw the film “Times Square” and heard a song called “Flowers in the City” by David Johansen and Robin Johnson. The title of the song, as opposed to the lyrics, was the true inspiration.
The original prints from this series were gelatin silver prints hand printed in a wet darkroom and then painstakingly hand tinted with oils. Signed color pigment print reproductions are available. Also, some of the original prints are availalble purchase. Please contact me directly for a price quote on the remaining original pieces.
Remnants of New York City These photos are part of a series documenting various storefronts, buildings and details that have either disappeared from the New York City landscape or still exist, but represent a bygone era of the city. Many of these places, at one time, defined my New York City experience.
Coney Island - An unfinished Photo Essay / 1998-2000 is a photo project I worked on while I was a photo researcher at the Black Star Picture Agency. Though I'd given up street photography years earlier, working at a photojournalism-based photo agency made me want to hit the streets again. I figured Coney Island would be a great theme for a photo essay and spent much time there between 1998 and 2000.
After about two years, the trip from my home in the Kingsbridge neighborhood of The Bronx to Coney Island was getting a bit tiresome.
In retrospect, it was great fun photographing Coney Island. I generally photographed whatever caught my eye rather than focusing on a particular theme. I now see these photographs as a document of the area surrounding the amusement park that would eventually undergo extensive redevelopment.
Ever since I was a child growing up in Pittsburgh, I'd heard about Coney Island in books, movies and songs. One song that really struck me was Lou Reed’s ”Coney Island Baby." This collection of photographs is dedicated to the late Lou Reed.
Street Musicians and Entertainers: New York City, London & Elsewhere is a photo project I worked on during the 1980's and 1990's. Wherever I went I seemed to run into street musicians and entertainers. This project documents my encounters with these talented artists.
Thank you for taking the time to view my photographs,
Richard Serviss
New York City 2021