Suzanne Stein

Little Bit, New York City, September 2024 I started photographing in New York City after a two year lay off. I had completely lost track of Little Bit, and our lives had gone on completely separate paths. I never thought I’d see her again, and I had no intention of seeking her out on the street. Not because of negative feelings toward her (care deeply about Little Bit and what happens to her),…

On a handsome August New York City afternoon I decided to wander midtown. I had just finished a late morning workout and my plan was to walk down 7th Avenue towards 34th street, hitting some favorite spots as I headed downtown. I took my camera from my handbag as I reached 35th and 7th, one of the great Manhattan corners. It’s got everything a street photographer could ask for when shooting a…

Kensington Avenue and Somerset Street, Kensington East Tusculum Street and Kensington Avenue East Gurney Street, Kensington For a long time I felt too uncomfortable to shoot honest street photography in Kensington. I had been photographed several times, pictures of me posted on social media accounts, ugly posts intended to destroy my reputation and ability to move freely and safely in the…

Ruth Street, Kensington, Philadelphia, April 2024…..this photograph marked the end of my charmed life in Kensington. Drug corner at Orléans and Ruth Street. The first day I spent in Kensington was in August of 2022. I did not have a car, and I was on foot. I had taken an Uber to the center of the neighborhood, and I found myself on Orléans Street near Ruth. I had no idea where I was…

F Street, Kensington, Philadelphia I give out my phone number. Not every day, and not to everyone I photograph or meet in Kensington. When I interact with someone that I think is especially vulnerable, or if they want me to send them pictures I have made with them, I give them my contact information so that I can text an image. Sometimes I have sent pictures via text to people’s parents, and…

When I went to Philadelphia I was really desperate to leave New York City behind. I had been a street photographer, and also doing very intimate and involved photographic essays with people I had met on the street and in life, people I felt had stories to tell, or who represented social situations that were in need of closer examination and change. Ginette Leo Bethany Little Bit But I was…

Clearfield Street, Kensington, Philadelphia Tuesday, April 30, 2024 This is what I just saw. I’m in Kensington now, and a few moments ago I was sitting in my car, waiting for the light to change at the intersection of Kensington Avenue and Clearfield Street. I see a beautiful young woman and man, in their mid twenties. They are clearly new to Kensington, slightly unsure of exactly where…

23rd Street and 3rd Avenue, New York City Street photography during the Israel-Hamas war can either include images that illustrate current trending behavior, or it can entirely avoid anything that may be the least bit controversial. When street photography avoids images that define or separate the multitude of mini epochs that pop up with increasing frequency these days, it loses legitimacy.…

Tranq wound, anonymous

Antoine on Guerney Street, Kensington, Philadelphia I met Antoine by accident. I was trying to get a picture of the train cars as they slowly moved East on the tracks that begin the division between Kensington and Fairhill. He was standing just in front of the iron fence that runs the entire length of Guerney Street, watching me as I tried to get in position to catch a picture of the rowhomes…

Broken, Cambria Street, Kensington Tranq wounds smell bad. That means people who have lesions advanced enough to have a noticeable odor suffer more than just the physical pain of having them, or the emotional reaction to seeing them on one’s body. In warmer weather, they are often on public display without the camouflage of winter clothing. The shock of the injury can be very hard to look at,…

Graphic Content Kari, Cambria Street, Kensington, Philadelphia I returned to Philadelphia on September 20, 2022. I had been in New York City since 2017, and before that, Southern California, Austin, Texas and very briefly in Charleston, South Carolina. Living in different places during various phases of my life as a single parent, trying to find a place to call home where I actually felt at…

Bethany, NYU campus near Washington Square, June 2022 Bethany, Washington Square, 2019 I avoided Bethany for nearly six months, from Christmas 2021 to late May 2022. I had a lot of legitimate personal reasons to do so. My life was becoming unmanageable because of the need to monitor a deteriorating health situation within my family, as well as a newfound obligation to help care for someone who…

Anti-Vaccination Protester, Soho, New York City One little thing……can you see it? This visually minor detail represents a major mindset, and can be so divisive that the pure artistic statement of the woman’s body will become buried in an avalanche of distorted perceptions. Lately I’m more and more concerned as a visual artist and street photographer. What can I put on social media without fear…

Single woman with children, before rainfall at night, Chiapas Mexico Resting in a small town recreational space after a long March in the rain. Woman with her children, March during hard rain Exhausted woman with children resting Single mother and daughter after March in the rain Elderly woman rests in the chaos Single woman with children Densely packed crowd resting Children get hosed…

Evening before the start of Yom Kippur in Crown Heights, Brooklyn Shochet, Night, Kapporos on the eve of Yom Kippur, Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Birds are slaughtered by a certified practitioner who must abide by Kosher law in methodology as practiced during animal slaughter. Because of the volume of birds being killed, some locations do not adhere to established protocols. On this night in Crown…