From the day
Perspective: The Street Photographer · Tactile
The slush of January seeps through my leather brogues as I frame a shot of a child clutching a brand-new Raggedy Andy, its limp cotton limbs and yarn hair a bright contrast against the soot-stained wool of the city. I duck past a filling station where the attendant is chalking up $0.30 a gallon, a price so steep it makes the daily headlines about European disarmament feel like total baloney to the man just trying to keep his Ford rattling down the cobbles. The air tastes of coal smoke and wet tweed, vibrating with the tinny hum of a nearby gramophone scratching out "The Sheik of Araby." I adjust my lens, capturing the glint of wire-rimmed cheaters on a banker’s face as he steps over a puddle, oblivious to the shivering flower girl in her threadbare flannel shawl.