Photographers, historically, have focused on two aspects of the street as subject: the socio-political character of human interactions and the occasions for expressive gesture.
Great as these traditions are, I found they left out significant aspects of our actual perceptual experience of the street — its locations and people. Bringing these together has been my artistic goal.
The first and most important aspect is time. In cities, most encounters with people on the street are fleeting and peripheral. People appear and disappear from view almost before we have a chance to register their presence. To capture the profound sense of transience, I use a variety of exposure and motion strategies. Some of which have been used by classic photographers but never developed in depth. There is, perhaps, an instant in our perception where the casual subject is held steady but the image is already blurred by a prior instant and degraded even further by the speed at which they become a memory never fully known.
This is the other aspect my street photographer seeks to capture: anonymity. Street photographers often simply assume the alien character as a given. Taking a picture of them somehow makes them more familiar. For me, the very fact of this unknowability is a source of bittersweet wonder. We can never fully engage the many people we pass by and I don’t want to lose sight of that fact. Born and raised in New York, I have always been part of the hustle of the city. The energy on the streets is ripe for photographic exploration. Much of my art focuses, pun intended, on the quotidian passerby. Capturing my subjects the way I do, in the midst of their fleetingness, where time is slightly stretched, renders them extraordinary, unfamiliar, with no possibility of recognition but also strangely sculptural. I try to shoot in locations that emphasize this insubstantiality.
About Lisa Saltzman
Lisa Saltzman is a New York born-and-raised photographer, whose primary inspiration stems from the quotidian of passersby in New York and her diverse surroundings. Her parents are collectors and passionate art patrons, and she has been strongly influenced by their collection and love of art. Her artistic influences include impressionist painting, abstract art, and figureatures. Earlier in Saltzman’s career, she ran an advertising and promotional merchandise company where she designed and created work for clients such as the Guggenheim Museum, Estée Lauder, MAC Cosmetic and HBO. Saltzman has studied and been certified at Christie’s and the International Center of Photography. She is known for her street photography style, which has garnered multiple awards and along with other works, has been hand-picked for exhibitions across the globe. Her photographs can be seen in many important corporate collections including The Cleveland Clinics permanent collection and she has sold her work to numerous high profile collectors. She was a member of the Board of Directors of American Photographic Artists (APA) New York Chapter and currently on the board of The Center for Photography at Woodstock. Saltzman is a film producer of the 2018 film, Deception Road, and has numerous high profile projects in development.
City Anonymity has been featured in L’Œil de la Photographie, Art of the Times, Artery NYC, and Communication Arts and has received many awards including first place in the International Color Awards, Tokyo International Foto Awards, Prix de la Photographie, among many others. The series has been exhibited internationally at Brick Lane Gallery, London; LemoArt Gallery, Berlin; and across the United States including the Center for Fine Art Photography and the Darkroom Gallery. [Official Website]
