‘Six Windows’
Penn Station
gelatin silver print
1958
‘A Game of Cards’
Penn Station
gelatin silver print
1958
‘Empty Train’
Penn Station
gelatin silver print
1958
‘Commuters, Evening Train’
Penn Station
gelatin silver print
1958
‘Odd Man in’
Penn Station
gelatin silver print
1958
‘Woman on a Train’ (Six Lights)
Penn Station
gelatin silver print
1958
Louis Stettner is a celebrated American photographer whose work includes iconic images of Paris and New York. He was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York but moved to Paris in the 1950s, where he now lives permanently with his family. Louis has photographed Paris and New York for over 60 years, capturing the changes in the people, culture, and architecture of both cities.
Using both black and white and color images, his work documents fleeting moments in the life of the cities, moments that often cannot be recaptured. Stettner has documented the architectural and cultural evolution of Paris and New York, making his archive of thousands of images an important resource. Few photographers have such an extensive archive of both cities, one that includes historic images of each city’s most celebrated landmarks and the daily lives of its citizens.
His work has an unforced naturalistic quality to it, as he sought to capture the ordinary, every day lives of his subjects. He was particularly interested in documenting the lives of the working class in each city and he demonstrates much sensitivity in this endeavor, photographing them with great dignity. A limited amount of his work is devoted to still life and landscape images. Additionally, his paintings and sculptures tend to be abstract and in sharp contrast to his clear, vivid photographic images.
Azurebumble 