The Book

Looking back through my contact sheets covering the time that I lived in New York City, I felt I was looking at lines from an unfinished poem. This portfolio of photographs is my attempt to finish the poem. The photos are presented in chronological order and therefore connect the dots of a time in my life that is gone like noise from a street.

Author website

http://www.marvinmoore.com


I found a very, very small apartment for $85 a month near the corner of MacDougal and Bleecker streets in the Village. I began assisting photographers. I worked for a lot of Magnum photographers.
I opened my own business, sharing a studio at 234 5th avenue. I got married. Time passed.
My wife and I moved to Nova Scotia. We had two children. They grew up.
I'm still a photographer. Now my hair is too short.
I specialize in photographing 'real' people in their natural surroundings
in an artful and down-to-earth way. I work for agencies, designers, major corporations, and magazines in Atlantic Canada and across North America.
I enjoy working for non-profits and in medical and hospital settings.
I'm good in an office or a factory. My jump shot has suffered.

I photographed this busking tight rope walker in Washington Square Park in 1978. Years later, looking at my contact sheets I realized that the performer was Philippe Petit the famed high-wire artist who had walked between the towers of the Notre Dame Cathedral in 1971 and the twin towers of NY’s World Trade Center in 1974. See the film of his walk at the WTC “Man on Wire” it’s beyond comprehension. . . . .

 This pretty much sums it up:
I was born in Michigan and played high school basketball and football.
I went to college to play basketball and was kicked off the team
because my hair was too long. My coach believed in buzz cuts for everyone.
That ended my sports career. But I discovered a much larger world and began to photograph it.
Eventuall,y I graduated college with a degree in philosophy. After graduation, not knowing what to do with my life, I went to work in a small steel mill. When I applied for the job, the foreman said: "we don't have too many jobs for philosophy majors here".
It was very hard work. I joined the Teamsters Union. We went on strike. That was the end of my career as a steelworker. I headed west and had two great summers at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado. Following a girlfriend, I moved to New York City.