Richard Sandler CC Train 1985
Richard Sandler CC Train 1985

RICHARD SANDLER

The award-winning photographer/filmmaker, Richard Sandler, shot the streets of New York City from 1977 until the early 2000s, reflecting on the joys and stresses of urbanity

the eyes of the city

May 18 - July 16

Avant Gallery is pleased to present the work of legendary photographer and filmmaker Richard Sandler. The exhibition “Richard Sandler: The Eyes of the City” includes over 40 photographs produced in the imperiled technique of silver gelatin. The show will open on May 18, 2023 at Avant Gallery New York City at Hudson Yards and run through July 16th.

Sandler's work is imbued with a captivating sense of nostalgia that is somehow also timeless, emphasized through the technique of silver gelatin printing, a method that is nearly extinct. Known for his street photography capturing the energy of New York City between the 70s and 90s, Sandler’s body of work highlights both the beauty and grit of everyday life, often set in the lifeblood of New York: the subway.

The artist will be in attendance for the opening reception for “Richard Sandler: The Eyes of the City” taking place at Avant Gallery at Hudson Yards on Thursday, May 18, 6pm-9pm.

BIO

Richard Sandler is a street photographer and documentary filmmaker. He has directed and shot eight non-fiction films, including “The Gods of Times Square,” “Brave New York” and “Radioactive City.”

Sandler’s still photographs are in the permanent collections of Brooklyn Museum, Center for Creative Photography - University of Arizona, Houston Museum of Fine Art, Museum of the City of New York, New York Historical Society, New York Public Library.

He was awarded a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship for photography, a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation fellowship for Filmmaking, and a New York State Council on the Arts fellowship for Filmmaking.

The Eyes of the City was published by powerHouse Books in 2016.

Richard Sandler The Hopefuls, Studio 54 1981
richard sandler

The Hopefuls, Studio 54, 1981

"Because of the density of the spaces depicted in Richard’s frames, tension is rife: for example, children and families are forced into uncomfortable proximity with the pornographic advertisements that were a pillar of pre-Giuliani Times Square in the 1980s. Bystanders become inadvertently complicit in a narrative they are unaware exists. No one is spared exposure in Richard’s street" - Serge J-F. Levy

“You could say, 'look how f----- up New York was in the 80s, look at all this graffiti,' but also it was very beautiful," he says. "The layering of randomness, of one person's tagging over another, and it would go on for months and years, and it started to look like Jackson Pollock.”

—Richard Sandler
Richard Sandler Double Date 1985
Richard Sandler Double Date 1985
Feed Me
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Lingerie
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Bustier 34th Street
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Macy’s Window, 34th Street
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Pissed Woman, Pleading Guy
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Security on 57th
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Madison and 32nd
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Man Jumps
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Subway Swoon
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Dancing Dog
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Two Dudes near the Deuce
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Two Faces, 53rd St
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Third Eye Train
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Subway Kiss
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Last Car, #1 Train, The Greatest Show on Earth
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E Train
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RR Train
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CC Train
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Subway Noir
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Back to Back / Hasid and Hipster
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Turn ‘Em Loose Bruce
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Van Cleef
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Woman and Veil
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6th Ave., and 57th St., NYC
6th Ave., and 57th St., NYC
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2023
The Strange Intimacy of New York City, The Atlantic

Between the streets: shades of New York – in pictures, The Guardian

PRESS HIGHLIGHTS

2017
Beauty, Politics and Humor
in a Rapidly Changing City, The New York Times

Richard Sandler’s Startling Photographs of Pre-9/11 New York, Hyperallergic

2016
These Photos Show a New York That Doesn’t Really Exist Anymore, The Washington Post