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Street Photographer Captures New York City Romance Over 30 Years

  • <div class="caption-credit">Photo by: Matt Weber</div>"I leave my house with no particular expectations and usually come back empty handed," Weber explains, "but when I do get lucky, it's always better than anything I could have imagined."
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    Photo by: Matt Weber
    "I leave my house with no particular expectations and usually come back empty handed," Weber explains, "but when I do get lucky, it's always better than anything I could have imagined."
  • <div class="caption-credit">Photo by: Matt Weber</div>Weber doesn't "shoot from the hip," calling it a bad habit. "Even though one can get lucky doing it, it's still a sure-fire way to take badly composed pictures," he explains.
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    Photo by: Matt Weber
    Weber doesn't "shoot from the hip," calling it a bad habit. "Even though one can get lucky doing it, it's still a sure-fire way to take badly composed pictures," he explains.
  • <div class="caption-credit"> Photo by: Matt Weber</div>Instead, Weber carefully composes each photograph, searching for the perfect moment to capture.
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    Photo by: Matt Weber
    Instead, Weber carefully composes each photograph, searching for the perfect moment to capture.
  • <div class="caption-credit">Photo by: Matt Weber</div>Weber told Yahoo Shine that he likes to shoot action, which he calls "that overused term, 'the decisive moment.'"
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    Photo by: Matt Weber
    Weber told Yahoo Shine that he likes to shoot action, which he calls "that overused term, 'the decisive moment.'"
  • <div class="caption-credit">Photo by: Matt Weber</div>"Things happen so quickly that one must have catlike reflexes in order to get the perfect pictures on the streets," he says.
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    Photo by: Matt Weber
    "Things happen so quickly that one must have catlike reflexes in order to get the perfect pictures on the streets," he says.
  • <div class="caption-credit"> Photo by: Matt Weber</div>It's all about timing when releasing the shutter for Weber. "If you are too slow, or sometimes too quick, the moment may be rich, but the picture itself will be awkward."
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    Photo by: Matt Weber
    It's all about timing when releasing the shutter for Weber. "If you are too slow, or sometimes too quick, the moment may be rich, but the picture itself will be awkward."
  • <div class="caption-credit">Photo by: Matt Weber</div>As a street photographer, Weber has encountered some tense moments with the subjects of his photographs. "I have been confronted and shoved and cursed out too many times to remember," he shares. "I sometimes take the incidents to heart for a few days, but then it's time to shake it off and get back to hunting for images."
    7/8

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    Photo by: Matt Weber
    As a street photographer, Weber has encountered some tense moments with the subjects of his photographs. "I have been confronted and shoved and cursed out too many times to remember," he shares. "I sometimes take the incidents to heart for a few days, but then it's time to shake it off and get back to hunting for images."
  • <div class="caption-credit">Photo by: Matt Weber</div>He couldn't ask for a better backdrop than the Big Apple. "I like all the different things New York has to offer a photographer," he says. More of Weber's photography can be seen in his book, "Urban Prisoner," on his websites <a href="http://weber-street-photography.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:NYC Street Photography;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">NYC Street Photography</a> and <a href="http://mattweberphotos.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:Matt Weber New York Photography;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">Matt Weber New York Photography</a>, and in <a href="http://lespedi.com/morethantherainbow/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:"More Than the Rainbow,";elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">"More Than the Rainbow,"</a> an award-winning documentary.
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    Photo by: Matt Weber
    He couldn't ask for a better backdrop than the Big Apple. "I like all the different things New York has to offer a photographer," he says. More of Weber's photography can be seen in his book, "Urban Prisoner," on his websites NYC Street Photography and Matt Weber New York Photography, and in "More Than the Rainbow," an award-winning documentary.
<div class="caption-credit">Photo by: Matt Weber</div>"I leave my house with no particular expectations and usually come back empty handed," Weber explains, "but when I do get lucky, it's always better than anything I could have imagined."
<div class="caption-credit">Photo by: Matt Weber</div>Weber doesn't "shoot from the hip," calling it a bad habit. "Even though one can get lucky doing it, it's still a sure-fire way to take badly composed pictures," he explains.
<div class="caption-credit"> Photo by: Matt Weber</div>Instead, Weber carefully composes each photograph, searching for the perfect moment to capture.
<div class="caption-credit">Photo by: Matt Weber</div>Weber told Yahoo Shine that he likes to shoot action, which he calls "that overused term, 'the decisive moment.'"
<div class="caption-credit">Photo by: Matt Weber</div>"Things happen so quickly that one must have catlike reflexes in order to get the perfect pictures on the streets," he says.
<div class="caption-credit"> Photo by: Matt Weber</div>It's all about timing when releasing the shutter for Weber. "If you are too slow, or sometimes too quick, the moment may be rich, but the picture itself will be awkward."
<div class="caption-credit">Photo by: Matt Weber</div>As a street photographer, Weber has encountered some tense moments with the subjects of his photographs. "I have been confronted and shoved and cursed out too many times to remember," he shares. "I sometimes take the incidents to heart for a few days, but then it's time to shake it off and get back to hunting for images."
<div class="caption-credit">Photo by: Matt Weber</div>He couldn't ask for a better backdrop than the Big Apple. "I like all the different things New York has to offer a photographer," he says. More of Weber's photography can be seen in his book, "Urban Prisoner," on his websites <a href="http://weber-street-photography.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:NYC Street Photography;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">NYC Street Photography</a> and <a href="http://mattweberphotos.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:Matt Weber New York Photography;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">Matt Weber New York Photography</a>, and in <a href="http://lespedi.com/morethantherainbow/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:"More Than the Rainbow,";elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">"More Than the Rainbow,"</a> an award-winning documentary.

When street photographer Matt Weber was a New York City taxi driver in the late '70s and early '80s, he witnessed "many unbelievable" events while on the job, he says, and got a firsthand look at the hardships and loneliness of life in a big city. So in 1984, Weber decided to record it all, buying his first camera, a $150 Canon AE-1, and snapping away from the window of his yellow cab. Over the past 30 years, in addition to documenting everything from fist fights to dancing in the streets the Big Apple, the 55-year-old has also captured a more romantic side of New York, photographing couples in love. "I must be a romantic, since the old black and white movies have always gotten the best of me," Weber tells Yahoo Shine. From PDA at a subway station to couples stealing kisses on bustling sidewalks, check out a few of the photographs from one of his collections, "Urban Romance." -- Ali Swank