ResidentÊ December 2010 • 173 GUIDElines | Entertainment T wo businessmen are transxed by something outside the photo’s frame. What are they captivated by and why are they perched like herons atop standing water pipes? In another photo a Hare Krishna points to literature for a man with a sign around his neck that reads, “I am blind, will you please help me.” But who is blinder? The man wearing the sign? Or the Hare Krishna solicitor “blind” to his sign and donations cup? These are only two of the striking New York City street scenes captured by Paul McDonough and displayed in his new book, New Ê YorkÊ Phot og ra phsÊ 196 8 – 1978,Ê published by Umbrage Editions. The coffee-table hardcover was released to coincide with the current Chelsea exhibition of McDonough’s photos at the Sasha Wolf Ga llery (SashaWolf.com). Y ou’ll see Êfashi ons Ê fro mÊ the Êten Ê yea rsÊ covered in the book—big ’fros and long hair, young women in hot pants and white go-go boots, and an older generation sporting full-length fur coats. A hooded gure walks through an unexplained haze of smoke. AÊtoughÊangryÊwomanÊwithÊ cigarette dangling wears her hair pinned back by little-girl barrettes. McDonough, who arrived in New York in 1967, became fascinated and inspired by everyday scenes. “The energy level of New Y orkers,” he said, “rushing to and from their myriad destinations was galvanizing. The minor, and major dramas of theÊ ci tyÊ we re Ê theÊ mainÊ attraction.Ê People in New York were different.” TheÊcurious Ê imag eÊ of Ê menÊ inÊ suits Ê onÊ water pipes is hard to look away from. What the viewer doesn’t know is that the photo was taken during a parade and the two men needed height to see over the heads of the crowd. McDonough’s camera froze random moments, like a conservatively dressed woman moving forward while staring back with a suspicious and disparaging scowl, and the xed gaze of a passerby whose mind is elsewhere, rendering him oblivious to the theatrical world he walks through. On page 23, a priest wearing hipster sunglasses and a dapper fedora traverses beside a sexy young woman, begging the question, are these two together and is he really a priest? “Manhattan now, as well as forty years ago,” McDonough said, “is a walker’s city. I could wear out a good deal of shoe leather crisscros sing the streets of midtown with detours into Central Park.” In the late ’60s, fueled by coffee and too much free time, he began his NYC fascination. With his camera at the ready , McDonough sought “the gesture or expression that demanded to be recorded.” He said, “From a roll of thirty-six exposures, I might select only two or three. Like the stock market, I had my good days and bad days.” This book and exhibition ar e a celebrat ion of some of his best days. MoMA and the NY Public Library are two of many owners of McDonough collections. In the book’s forward, Susan Kismaric, MoMA ’s curator of photog raphy , wrote, “McDonough caught and juxtaposed disparate types that are central to the city’s vitality and proudly worn tradition of weirdness .” She calls McDonough’s take on New York City “a stage lled with characters of contradiction and extremity .” Kismaric labels McDonough’s most irresistible virtues as, “an eye for faces and gestures, acute curiosity, humor, and generosity.” Add to that a love for our metropolis and you have an accurate description of his talent. McDonough Ê wor kÊ isÊ onÊ di splayÊ throughÊ JanuaryÊ 8, Ê 20 11Ê at Ê the Sa shaÊWol f Ê Gall er y (SashaWolf.com) 54 8Ê WestÊ 28 th Ê St reet 212.925.0025 Do rr iÊ Old sÊ (Do rr iOl ds.c om) is Ê aÊ wr it er,Ê so ci al Ê me di aÊ co ns ul tant an dÊ we bÊ de si gn er. EyE on City StrEEtS By Dorri olDs