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4 weeks ago
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‘Having a camera back then was still something special. Not everybody was carrying one around all the time like today.’
Young skaters in Washington Square Park, 1994
Photograph: Dietmar Busse
‘The concept of a selfie had not been born yet and being a photographer held a certain power.’
The artist and film-maker Steve McQueen photographed for a feature in Harpers Bazaar in 1997/8
Photograph: Dietmar Busse
‘On Sundays I would ride my bicycle around the city looking for people to photograph. Usually, it was someone’s appearance that would get my attention, but it could also be the way a person moved or a certain kind of feeling I was getting from them.’
Girl with guitar in Washington Square Park, 1998
Photograph: Dietmar Busse
‘The fact that one could see the pictures in a matter of minutes was very exciting. [My friends and I] would experiment and play while I captured the results of our imaginations with my big Polaroid camera.’
Ultra Naté, 1997 cover shot for her hit single Free
Photograph: Dietmar Busse
‘I got to photograph a lot of interesting people and I loved going to the newsstands and see my pictures in magazines.’
Office workers at the World Trade Center, 1994
Photograph: Dietmar Busse
‘I would ask if I could take their picture in exchange for a Polaroid. When people agreed, these spontaneous photo sessions lasted a few minutes only, but sometimes they took longer and people would tell me their stories, or occasionally even invite me to visit and photograph them in their homes.’
Huy and Bernadette of Bernadette Corp in Coney Island, 1993
Photograph: Dietmar Busse
‘[Photography] was a great way to meet people and get access to places that one otherwise wouldn’t be granted.’
Sunday morning in Harlem, 1995
Photograph: Dietmar Busse
‘My roommate at the time had a connection to Paper magazine. He arranged for me to show my work to the editor, and I walked out of that meeting with an assignment for a 10-page fashion spread in 1995. Afterwards it was decided that all the models in the story should be Asian American. It was a big success.’
Asian girls on sofa for Paper magazine in 1995
Photograph: Dietmar Busse
‘However, after some time I got overwhelmed by the demands of the commercial world.’
Amy Wesson for Spanish Vogue, 1997
Photograph: Dietmar Busse
‘It became less about storytelling and more and more about selling a product.’
The architect Philip Johnson photographed for the cover of Out magazine in 1997
Photograph: Dietmar Busse
‘Instead of listening to myself, I tried to cater to the needs of the many people around me: clients, art directors, stylists, model agencies … and to appear “professional”.’
A day with Rossy de Palma in Harlem, 1995
Photograph: Dietmar Busse
‘Only a small fraction of my work from that decade has survived.’
Ami dancing in 1993
Photograph: Dietmar Busse
‘Even worse, by the end of the decade it became obvious that if I wanted to continue working commercially, I was going to have to get a digital camera. This I could not do.’
Showgirls in Las Vegas for the New York Times magazine in 1995
Photograph: Dietmar Busse
‘Instead, I moved to a cheap railroad apartment in Brooklyn where I glued flowers on the walls and on to my painted body for a few years documenting all with my Polaroid.’
Lonely man on West Side Highway, 1994
Photograph: Dietmar Busse
‘Then in 2016 the building I lived and worked in on Lexington Avenue caught on fire and it almost wiped out my entire archive.’
The writer Gary Indiana, photographed for a feature in Harper’s Bazaar in 1997/8
Photograph: Dietmar Busse
‘All the photographs in this small booklet were taken with a Polaroid camera during the 1990s.’
Mother with children in Harlem in 1995
Photograph: Dietmar Busse
‘I have never had any interest in digital photography.’
Acrobats at Ringling Brothers, 1996
Photograph: Dietmar Busse
‘Neither the fire, nor the water that practically drowned the rest of my apartment had damaged them: On the outside of one of the boxes I had written: “POLAROIDS!!!”’
My friend Charlie, 1996
Photograph: Dietmar Busse
