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Joe the man who's picture was taken a thousand times

I met Joe today on Union Sqaure while taking pictures of the Mayday parade and protest march. After photographing a transparent lying on the ground just a few feet away from him he waved me to come over and just said: "You took my picture". I sat down on the ground next to him and told him that I was just taking a photo of that sign over there. He didn't realy believe me. One of the good things of shooting digital is that you have the possibility to show people the pictures you took on that little screen. I convinced him of the fact that I didn't take his picture and offert him a cigarette.

We where smoking this cigarett together and started to talk. He told me that everybody want's to take pictures of him. He has been photographed a thousend times already. People from the press took pictures of him, people who did books took pictures of him and tourists took pictures of him. Joe told me that he'd like to get some money if people use his photos to earn money theirselfs. Two lesbian women invited him once to their appartment in the East Village to take nude photos of him. He told me that he has no problem standing in the middle of the street getting naked and being photographed. He just didn't want to do that since he didn't want to get into troubles with the police.

We have been sitting on Union Square for about an hour and a half talking about our lifes. Joe worked in a Pizza restaurant originaly. He lost his job when they went bankrupt and was unable to find a new one. Joe told me about his wife and his father who died 10 years ago, we where talking about life on the street and about the opportunities homeless people have in New York to get a place to sleep and some food. Seems there are not many of them.

Suddenly he moved sidewards and pulled a sheet of paper out of his trousers, unfolded it and said: "Look this guy did also take my photo". Well there was Bruce Davidson's name written down. I told Joe that Bruce Davidson was a very famous photographer from the Magnum Photos agency and that he realy did a well known book about New Yorks subways. Joe never saw this book and he didn't meet Bruce Davidson. A Japanese girl once gave him this note and told him that he was in there. No matter if he is or not, he seemed happy to know that a famous photographer took a picture of him. He asked me if I would also take some photos of him, a thousand if I wanted to. I took a few frames and told him that I will get them printed for him. I might find Joe around Union Square. I should just give it a try...

I have to go to bed now, tomorrow will be my first day at Magnum. If you'd like to see some work of Bruce Davidson, the photographer mentioned above, visit his website here.
I'll be posting photos of the Mayday parade and protest march tomorrow.

Posted by Martin Fuchs on May 1, 2005 11:18 PM