There are many reasons and times to watch a movie. I was walking around Ginza one day and the idea of walking in New York City came to mind. Since I couldn’t go there just like that I decided to go see a movie instead. Not a bad idea I thought. The movie should be in New York City and a documentary would be best. I wasn’t in a fiction mood that day. I Googled around and found the perfect movie, got on the subway to Image Forum and was soon walking around in New York City.

The movie Everybody Street features fifteen street photographers who are all in love with New York City. It was directed by Cheryl Dunn who is a street photographer herself. I read in an interview that she asked Robert Frank to take part in the film but he declined. Dunn: “If I can have Robert Frank say to me, ’Fuck you! I don’t want to talk about photography,’ it would be like the greatest ending of the movie.” It really would have been perfect.

All the photographers have their own unique way to showcase their love of the city. They carry a camera with them all the time and snap away on the street. Some get beaten and kicked around for shooting passersby. Some of them go into some gang’s hideout and shoot them shooting up right on the spot. Was it Jill Freedman who said, “Certain range finders are magnificent weapons” as she demonstrated wrapping the strap tight around her fist and letting loose? Not all the photographers might agree, but you could say photography is a more or less dangerous occupation. When asked why he keeps shooting in New York City, Bruce Davidson replies “It’s out there. I go out, just try to get it right.”

One of the master photographers featured in Everybody Street who made a strong impression upon me was Martha Cooper who chose to shoot in ghettos like the South Bronx. When she started shooting there in the late 70’s the South Bronx was an impoverished area with mostly African American residents and so run down it looked as if it were fire bombed from the sky. I imagine it took a lot of guts to go and shoot there.

Martha Cooper is well known for her book Subway Art which captures hip hop culture including graffiti, but another subject she loved was the children in these neighborhoods.

They play in the shells of junk heap cars, play soldiers using broken-chair legs as rifles or build secret bases out of scrapped wood. Children know how to have fun no matter where they are. Cooper’s book Street Play is full of these warm pictures of children, laughing carefree living in the ghetto. As someone who took the risk of shooting graffiti artists in rough neighborhoods, perhaps Cooper could use these children’s laughter too.