The book "The Eyes of the City" published by powerHouse Books showcases street photographer and filmmaker Richard Sandler's images from the streets of New York and Boston between the years 1977-2001.

From 1977 to just weeks before September 11, 2001, Richard regularly walked through the streets of Boston and New York, making incisive and humorous pictures that read the pulse of that time. After serendipitously being gifted a Leica camera in 1977, Sandler shot in Boston for three productive years and then moved back home to photograph in an edgy, dangerous, colicky New York City.

In the 1980s crime and crack were on the rise and their effects were socially devastating. Times Square, Harlem, and the East Village were seeded with hard drugs, while in Midtown Manhattan, and on Wall Street, the rich flaunted their furs in unprecedented numbers, and "greed was good."

In the 1990s the city underwent drastic changes to lure in tourists and corporations, the result of which was rapid gentrification. Rents were raised and neighborhoods were sanitized, clearing them of both crime and character. Throughout these turbulent and creative years Sandler paced the streets with his native New Yorker's eye for compassion, irony, and unvarnished fact.

Read More: Watch the Rare 1981 Documentary About New York Street Photographer Joel Meyerowitz

You find additional images from the book at Time Magazine and The Guardian.

Via Hyperallergic.

Featured image: Grand Central Terminal, NYC, 1990 by Richard Sandler / The Eyes of the City.

The other day I watched a cut down version of the documentary "Homme Less" (2014) directed by Thomas Wirthensohn that follows fashion photographer Mark Reay around in New York and documents Reay's choice of being homeless.

I appreciated the documentary, however, I'm not sure the cut down version made it justice. I'll probably watch the full length version later on.

One treat in the documentary is the jazz music by Kyle Eastwood and Matt McGuire. Added onto the beautiful shots of New York, the documentary is something of a relaxing journey.

Watch the cut down version:

Watching The New York Times' web series "Block by Block" about the different neighbourhoods in New York City, is like discovering smaller world's within a larger one.

The series starts off with Hell's Kitchen:

Featured image: From the episode "Union Square".

Cyclists in New York City increase in numbers, and so does bicycle thefts. Someone who has experienced this many times over is filmmaker Casey Neistat, and he now tries to grow public awareness about the matter with an experiment since prior solutions seem unable to stop this negative trend.

I was 20 years old when I moved to New York City on a Friday in June 2001. I brought all the clothes I could fit in a big duffel bag, along with my bicycle. Monday morning I was to report to my new job as a bike messenger. Saturday, my first full day in Manhattan, my bike was stolen.

In the nearly 11 years since that day, I have had countless bikes and parts stolen. I've used the most secure locks, registered my bike with the N.Y.P.D., and parked in only the most conspicuous locations. But I've found only one sure way of keeping my bike secure: keeping it indoors. During business hours I keep my bike in my office and when I get home I carry it up four flights of stairs.

[…]

Solutions to the bike theft problem are hard to find. More bike racks in better-lit areas, stronger locks and bike garages all help. But ultimately, greater public awareness may be the only way to substantially curb theft. If someone saw a car being stolen, they would surely call the police. Why should a bike be any different?

To experience a winter storm might not be the most pleasing of things if, e.g., you're a daily commuter, but it sure looks good in images. Here at NY Daily News, a gallery showcasing the worst snowstorms in New York City's history.

Featured image: An absolutely mesmerizing image with a caption that reads "Streetcars were stuck during the winter storm of 1936 at W. 45th St. in Times Square thanks to a frozen switch." Copyright by New York Daily News Archive.

In this episode of "If Our Bodies Could Talk", James Hamblin, senior editor at The Atlantic, visits NYC's first meditation gym named MNDFL. The gym, founded by Ellie Burrows and Lodro Rinzler, offers drop-in meditation classes ranging from Vedic to mindfulness meditation.

If you're like me, not a New Yorker and unable to visit MNDFL, you can still learn effortless mantra meditation by reading my meditation guide.

The documentary "Everybody Street" (2013) by filmmaker and photographer Cheryl Dunn, explores street photography in New York City, and is one of the best documentaries I've seen recently.

"Everybody Street" illuminates the lives and work of New York's iconic street photographers and the incomparable city that has inspired them for decades. The documentary pays tribute to the spirit of street photography through a cinematic exploration of New York City, and captures the visceral rush, singular perseverance and at times immediate danger customary to these artists.

Watch trailer:

Featured image: Photography by Joel Meyerowitz, New York City, 1963.

Filmmaker Casey Neistat was ticketed for not riding in the bicycle lane in NYC. The policeman let him know that he should always use the bike lane, although it's not necessarily the safest place to be. In response, Casey decided to demonstrate the possible dangers of using them. It's a wonder he didn't get hurt making this.

The ongoing The New York Pizza Project documents NYC's last authentic pizzerias by photographing and interviewing the people who run these places and the people visiting them. Living in Sweden, I found places like Katz's Deli in NYC to be somewhat exotic and fascinating, so I'll definitely follow this project.

The team behind this project has created a 192-page hardcover coffee table book of the material they've captured over the past five years.

For more, watch the short documentary "Delivery" to meet charismatic bike messenger Billy, who delivers pizza, and/or find out more about the The Pocket Pizza Journal that easily captures your best pizza moments.

Via kottke.org.

Featured image: Luigi's Pizza in South Slope, Brooklyn.

Take a beautiful slow walk through the streets of New York City with street photographer Bobi Dojcinovski’s slo-mo video footage.

Via @HeyJustiine and spoiled nyc.

The other day, I was watching a documentary about photographer Thomas Hoepker. A big part of the documentary dealt with his work photographing Muhammad Ali in 1966, a really interesting account to hear. The work he does interests me, and inspires me to take more photographs myself. In the documentary, a few images that I've posted below stuck with me. The one from Harlem is incredible, pure gold dust!

"Children playing in the spray of a fire hydrant on a hot summer day" in Harlem, New York City, August 1983 (image via):

Trabant in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin (East), 1976 (image via):

"Young people relax during their lunch break along the East River while a huge plume of smoke rises from Lower Manhattan after the attack on the World Trade Center", Brooklyn, New York City, September 11, 2001 (image via):

The 9/11 photo became a bit controversial, so I good read is Slate's pieces "It's Me in That 9/11 Photo" and "I Took That 9/11 Photo"

OK, here we go! Let´s visit 99 locations of New York City in less than two minutes:

Learned a few fun facts from the new Swedish TV show Retro. You know the famous dance scene from the movie Flashdance (1983)? Some of the dancing is done by Crazy Legs (Richard Colón) from the American b-boying crew and hip hop group Rock Steady Crew, the group behind the hit single (Hey You) The Rock Steady Crew (video). The day before the shooting of the scene he tried to learn the actors Jennifer Beals and her body double, the French actress and dancer Marine Jahan, how to perform the dance, but after failing numerously times they showed up the next day all bruised up:

But it was Beals's final scene wherein she got the most help. Jahan performed most of it, but certain moves required specialized expertise. Gymnast Sharon Shapiro performed the flips, and one certain breakdance move was done by a male breakdancer -- Colón himself. "Being the first person in hip-hop to dress in drag -- I had to deal with that for years," the 47-year-old joked.

The producers of the film didn't plan to put Colón in the pivotal scene but were forced to out of necessity. No one could learn his backspin move, he recalled. He remembered Jahan and Shapiro showing up with bruises on their hips after many failed attempts to follow his breakdance coaching.

It happened:

When Colón was finally approached to dress and dance as Beals's character, he said with a laugh, "I just rubbed my fingers together because of that money," explaining that it was a lot to ask of a Puerto Rican teen from the Bronx to shave his legs, underarms, and mustache. "Especially the mustache because … I was a young kid and I'm finally getting my little machismo thing going on. And now, I have to shave my mustache off."

Here´s the whole dance scene. Skip to 3:43 to see Crazy Legs:

You can see more of the Rock Steady Crew in the grafitti documentary Style Wars from 1983 (video).

Featured image: Rock Steady Crew performs in Flashdance (video).

Related reading:

• 1980s NYC subway photos

Walk in New York is the name of the blog with a huge selection of NYC images, everything from vintage up to modern.

Lower N.Y. from Coenties Slip 1910:

Mike´s Shoe Repair at New York Street, Bronx. Look at the painted letter S at the sign. Love details like that:

Manhattan Bridge Tower in Brooklyn, New York City in 1974 by Lyon Danny. Via US National Archives.

First image shows the Queensboro Bridge in 1910 by Eugene de Salignac. Via The New York City Department of Records.

Thanks to Walk in New York for the gathering of pictures.

Related viewing:

• Historic Photos From the NYC Municipal Archives
• "It Felt Like a Real Discovery" (Article and gallery about the work of Eugene de Salignac)
• NYC Type