NEW YORK CITY STREET WAIT 1978 Gelatin Silver Photograph

This 1978 black and white photograph by Thomas Alan Schmidler captures a quiet moment of urban stillness — two figures waiting at the curb, bathed in shadow as cars drift by behind them. The woman’s hair catches a faint trace of light, while the man, leaning casually against a post, becomes a silhouette within the city’s geometric rhythm of lines, cars, and pavement.

Printed and developed by Schmidler on fiber-based paper, this original 5 x 7 inch gelatin silver photograph distills the essence of New York’s fleeting street intervals — the unspoken pauses between motion and time, rendered in perfect chiaroscuro balance.