Richard Sandler is a street photographer and documentary filmmaker. He has directed and shot eight non-fiction films, including “The Gods of Times Square,” “Brave New York” and “Radioactive City.” Sandler’s still photographs are in the permanent collections of Brooklyn Museum, Center for Creative Photography - University of Arizona, Houston Museum of Fine Art, Museum of the City of New York, New York Historical Society, New York Public Library. He was awarded a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship for photography, a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation fellowship for Filmmaking, and a New York State Council on the Arts fellowship for Filmmaking. The Eyes of the City was published by PowerHouse Books in 2017.
“Street photography is very difficult. The number of really good pictures that you get is very small in comparison to the number of pictures taken. You’re better off, I think, letting your intuition completely run wild… and even when you find yourself in a situation where the subject matter is really interesting, it is still hard to make a good picture, because how you put that subject matter into the frame is a huge issue. Also, people are moving and things are moving, so it’s a lot to orchestrate… that’s why i say that street photography is the perfect medium for obeying your intuition. It’s very much like meditation, in the sense that you’re in the moment and responding to it. Personally, I try to eliminate extraneous thoughts when i’m shooting. At worst it’s a wonderful psychological and diaristic exercise… at best you get a compelling image. When you don’t get good pictures at least you have the experience of having being ‘in the moment’ all day long, and that’s a very good thing… and it’s like any art form: it focuses you.”
– Richard Sandler
