Boardwalks, Beaches and Boulevards: Harold Feinstein

About

In the 2015 New York Times obituary celebrating his life, Harold Feinstein was declared “one of the most accomplished recorders of the American experience”, yet much of his photography is largely unknown.

While influenced by the likes of W. Eugene Smith and Henri Cartier-Bresson, Feinstein was not a photographer who would stand back and observe, unnoticed by his subjects. In fact, in nearly every image, Feinstein’s proximity to his subject is clear. It is this physical closeness, an extension of Feinstein’s profound connection to his subjects, that sets his work apart from other street photographers from the same period. Whether standing over a group of teenagers lying on a Coney Island beach, photographing a couple on the boulevard, or capturing the immutable gaze of a young child, intimacy and compassion sit at the core of each image. 

Where his contemporaries – photographers like Diane Arbus, Walker Evans and Garry Winogrand – documented the plight of the human condition without their subjects’ awareness, Feinstein celebrated humanity with his subjects. From the glittering lights of Times Square, to the streets of Harlem; from the smoke-filled coffee shops to subway cars; from city stoops to crowded beaches, Feinstein’s desire to connect with the world around him and share the experiences he saw is evident in every composition. A deep sense of empathetic humanity runs through these photographs. As Feinstein himself put it, 'Everywhere people live out their own personal story, yet are tied together through the universal emotions of love, loss, curiosity, humour and compassion… My street photography is a small sampling of my photographic journey bearing witness to the beauty and mystery of this human life.'

Born in Coney Island in 1931, Feinstein left school to begin photographing at the age of 15 and became one of the most prominent figures in the vanguard of the New York City street photography scene, joining the famed Photo League when he was 17. At the age of 19, Feinstein’s work was acquired by Edward Steichen for the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). He was included in shows at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1954 and at the Museum of Modern Art in 1957. Feinstein also had a solo show at the legendary Helen Gee's Limelight Gallery in 1957. Despite this early success, Feinstein’s extensive collection of classic street photography, nudes, portraits and still life have seldom been exhibited. However, that is changing.

A renaissance of his remarkable work is currently underway as evidenced by the 2018 feature length documentary Last Stop Coney Island: The Life and Photography of Harold Feinstein, which had its world premier at DOCNYC to a sold-out crowd. Thanks to the continued success of the film, the acclaimed monograph, Harold Feinstein: A Retrospective (Nazraeli Press, 2012), and a growing number of solo exhibitions worldwide, including this exhibition at the David Hill Gallery in London, Feinstein is finally beginning to receive the critical and public attention he so deserves.