Series D.IV. "Street Portraits", circa 1978-1988, inclusive

The series includes images transmitted to N-YHS in 35 emails by Stephen Harmon from 2012-2017 (duplicates sent multiple times have been removed). As Harmon described these in his initial email, the photographs were "made of people I observed or directly confronted from about 1978 to 1985" in order to capture the distinctive look of the period. The series uses the title "Street Portraits" given to the photographs by Harmon, though he also often referred to the series in his emails as "Street People." That title was not used here as that term is commonly used to refer to homeless or other individuals who live on the streets. Although there do appear to be such individuals in the series, there is a greater variety of people in these photographs.

The series includes portraits of a wide range of individuals and groups. These include the elderly, middle-aged, youths, and children; men and women; and various ethnicities. There are portraits of individuals, couples, and small groups. Many photos focus tightly on the face/head of the subject, while others are taken from a distance. Some focus on particular articles of clothing, such as torn ankle socks, or parts of a body, such as a tattooed arm. Many of the subjects are aware of the photographer and provide varied reactions, from smiles to belligerent glares. On the other hand, many photographs are candid shots.

Some of the photographs depict people as they conduct their labor on the street, such as mailmen, bus drivers, musicians,and vendors. Some are tender, such as those of affectionate couples, or poignant, such as those of elderly couples supporting each other, or playful, such as the child in the spray of a fire hydrant. Most simply capture people as they engage with their life routines: standing at crosswalks, walking along sidewalks, sitting on park benches and stoops, reading newspapers at bus stops, or using telephone booths, and conversing with one another. Most of the shots are in outdoor/exterior spaces, but a few, usually taken from the sidewalk and through the storefront window, depict diners, barber shop patrons, and others.

The diversity of clothing features prominently in the series. It ranges from conventional suits and ties to tattered apparel to the punk look of the era to various fashions, including hair styles, and casual streetwear. The photographs were taken in various seasons so the portraits range from the loosely-dressed look of the summer to the bundled overcoats of winter.

Although the photographs are generally not associated with a very specific location, they are all from New York and likely from the Upper West Side/Central Park area through Midtown to Greenwich Village for the most part. The cityscape provides a backdrop to many of the photographs, including newstands, food carts, storefronts, parked and moving cars, taxis, and nondescript buildings. All in all, the photos capture a sense of the demographic diversity found day to day on the streets of Manhattan, and the particular look of that diversity in that period.

Because of the consistency of the overall theme of the series, the individual emails generally include little or no additional context to the photographs, but there are a few exceptions to this.