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#flashHeader{visibility:visible !important;}Photos from the West Bank, India, Ukraine and Egypt.
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#flashHeader{visibility:visible !important;}This is the time for food lines. No, not the ones where people wait to buy artisanal cheeses, organic turkeys and handmade pies for Thanksgiving. It’s the time for food lines because the end of the month is near, which for many families means their food stamp allotment has run out and dollars are tight.
Most working New Yorkers don’t actually see these lines because they are too busy working. But scattered throughout the city, like latter-day versions of Depression photos, grandmothers and children, men and women wait hours for a bag of groceries at a food pantry. Many of the hungriest are children and the elderly. And many have jobs whose hours and salaries have been cut.
Mind you, they are the lucky ones.
“So many of the people using the food pantries are doing the right thing, and still it’s not enough,†said Joey O’Loughlin, a Brooklyn photographer who has been documenting hunger in the city. “They are the people around you, the workers in your building, the air-conditioning guy, the people in the stores where you shop, the housekeepers, nurses, municipal workers. But when I tell people, they are surprised and don’t believe it.â€
Joey O’Loughlin The line at the Action Center pantry, which was founded in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, in Far Rockaway. Aug. 10.This is not unexpected in a city where the gap between haves and have-nots is wide. But while the persistent image of the hungry in New York is that of the bedraggled, single homeless man, the real faces of need look much different, said Margarette Purvis, the president and chief executive of Food Bank For New York City. The food bank enlisted Ms. O’Loughlin to document its work, which includes not just feeding people but also offering help with an array of social and financial services.
Her group estimates that 2.6 million New Yorkers have problems buying food. While homeless men were their target population when the group began its efforts 30 years ago, children now account for 500,000 of their clients each year. Another fast-growing group, Ms. Purvis said, was elderly residents on fixed incomes. They, and working adults who cut back on food in order to meet rising rents, are the faces her group wanted to highlight to combat the myths about hunger.
“Myths can be comforting,†Ms. Purvis said. “Who wants to believe you can work your whole life and end up not being able to afford food? You want to believe those people had to have had something go wrong with them, in order for them to end up in that place. It’s scary to think you work two jobs and not be able to afford food.â€
Joey O’Loughlin At the Mid-Bronx Family Preservation Center pantry, Thanksgiving came in May.Ms. O’Loughlin came to the attention of the Food Bank For New York City after she photographed another project about a misunderstood and underfinanced institution, the public library. Much more than just a place to borrow books, libraries have also become job centers, literacy centers, citizenship preparation centers and more. Ms. O’Loughlin’s photos, which followed borrowers and their books to their homes, provided elusive insights.
Ms. O’Loughlin finds parallels between the projects.
“Seeing how they live showed how the libraries touched people,†she said. “The really smart people are the ones trying to better their lives and take advantage of what programs are there, whether it is the food bank or the library. It reminds me of the public school system where parents are on top of it.â€
From Brooklyn to the Bronx, in churches and community centers, she found a range of food pantries: from well-stocked, efficiently run operations to mom-and-pop outfits where good intentions exceeded capacity. What they had in common was need, with people waiting three hours or more for a bag of basic grocery items. Meat was a treat. In some places, baby formula and diapers were among the necessities handed out.
Ms. O’Loughlin said that while most of the places she visited limited people to a monthly allotment, more resourceful people trekked to different pantries around the city. Following them home, she saw scenes where people huddled in building lobbies to trade food items or went upstairs to share with homebound neighbors. She also found that some people were better at whipping up something tasty with even the most limited of ingredients.
But she also saw the ripple effects of the economic downturn, which sent people looking for food. Workers whose jobs depended on the spending of others found themselves hit hard.
“There was one couple, a guy who was a contractor who had been successful during the boom,†she said. “But his business fell apart. His wife had been a nanny who made a good salary, but she was not able to get another job after she had her own baby. The little things that used to be manageable have become more insurmountable.â€
That includes apathy on the part of fellow New Yorkers who would rather believe people are gaming the system than surviving in an otherwise-gilded city, Ms. O’Loughlin said.
“This is something that is easy to walk by,†she said. “There should be outrage. Is this who we really want to be?â€
Keep that in mind when you see a grandmother standing outside a church pantry with an empty shopping cart, not just this week, but every week. And keep in mind that for all her need, there is also gratitude for what she gets and what she gives: comfort food.
“For a grandmother, if you can still give the family a nice meal, you’re still nurturing,†Ms. O’Loughlin said. “You are fortifying people to deal with these circumstances. How are you supposed to deal with all this stuff if you don’t have any comfort?â€
Joey O’Loughlin Dinner made with pantry food simmered in Dina Garcia Torres’s apartment in the Bronx. Nov. 2.Follow @dgbxny and @nytimesphoto on Twitter. Lens is also on Facebook.
In order to view this feature, you must download the latest version of flash player here. #flashHeader{visibility:visible !important;}Photos from the West Bank, India, Ukraine and Egypt.
Follow Lens on Facebook and Twitter.
In order to view this feature, you must download the latest version of flash player here. 
#flashHeader{visibility:visible !important;}Photos from Egypt, Afghanistan, the Philippines and Japan.
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Owen Humphreys/Press Association, via Associated PressStarlings over Gretna, in southern Scotland, on Monday. The birds visit the area twice a year, in February and November.
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In order to view this feature, you must download the latest version of flash player here. #flashHeader{visibility:visible !important;}Photos from Egypt, Afghanistan, the Philippines and Japan.
Follow Lens on Facebook and Twitter.
Owen Humphreys/Press Association, via Associated PressStarlings over Gretna, in southern Scotland, on Monday. The birds visit the area twice a year, in February and November.
In order to view this feature, you must download the latest version of flash player here. #flashHeader{visibility:visible !important;}This is the time for food lines. No, not the ones where people wait to buy artisanal cheeses, organic turkeys and handmade pies for Thanksgiving. It’s the time for food lines because the end of the month is near, which for many families means their food stamp allotment has run out and dollars are tight.
Most working New Yorkers don’t actually see these lines because they are too busy working. But scattered throughout the city, like latter-day versions of Depression photos, grandmothers and children, men and women wait hours for a bag of groceries at a food pantry. Many of the hungriest are children and the elderly. And many have jobs whose hours and salaries have been cut.
Mind you, they are the lucky ones.
“So many of the people using the food pantries are doing the right thing, and still it’s not enough,†said Joey O’Loughlin, a Brooklyn photographer who has been documenting hunger in the city. “They are the people around you, the workers in your building, the air-conditioning guy, the people in the stores where you shop, the housekeepers, nurses, municipal workers. But when I tell people, they are surprised and don’t believe it.â€
Joey O’Loughlin The line at the Action Center pantry, which was founded in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, in Far Rockaway. Aug. 10.This is not unexpected in a city where the gap between haves and have-nots is wide. But while the persistent image of the hungry in New York is that of the bedraggled, single homeless man, the real faces of need look much different, said Margarette Purvis, the president and chief executive of Food Bank For New York City. The food bank enlisted Ms. O’Loughlin to document its work, which includes not just feeding people but also offering help with an array of social and financial services.
Her group estimates that 2.6 million New Yorkers have problems buying food. While homeless men were their target population when the group began its efforts 30 years ago, children now account for 500,000 of their clients each year. Another fast-growing group, Ms. Purvis said, was elderly residents on fixed incomes. They, and working adults who cut back on food in order to meet rising rents, are the faces her group wanted to highlight to combat the myths about hunger.
“Myths can be comforting,†Ms. Purvis said. “Who wants to believe you can work your whole life and end up not being able to afford food? You want to believe those people had to have had something go wrong with them, in order for them to end up in that place. It’s scary to think you work two jobs and not be able to afford food.â€
Joey O’Loughlin At the Mid-Bronx Family Preservation Center pantry, Thanksgiving came in May.Ms. O’Loughlin came to the attention of the Food Bank For New York City after she photographed another project about a misunderstood and underfinanced institution, the public library. Much more than just a place to borrow books, libraries have also become job centers, literacy centers, citizenship preparation centers and more. Ms. O’Loughlin’s photos, which followed borrowers and their books to their homes, provided elusive insights.
Ms. O’Loughlin finds parallels between the projects.
“Seeing how they live showed how the libraries touched people,†she said. “The really smart people are the ones trying to better their lives and take advantage of what programs are there, whether it is the food bank or the library. It reminds me of the public school system where parents are on top of it.â€
From Brooklyn to the Bronx, in churches and community centers, she found a range of food pantries: from well-stocked, efficiently run operations to mom-and-pop outfits where good intentions exceeded capacity. What they had in common was need, with people waiting three hours or more for a bag of basic grocery items. Meat was a treat. In some places, baby formula and diapers were among the necessities handed out.
Ms. O’Loughlin said that while most of the places she visited limited people to a monthly allotment, more resourceful people trekked to different pantries around the city. Following them home, she saw scenes where people huddled in building lobbies to trade food items or went upstairs to share with homebound neighbors. She also found that some people were better at whipping up something tasty with even the most limited of ingredients.
But she also saw the ripple effects of the economic downturn, which sent people looking for food. Workers whose jobs depended on the spending of others found themselves hit hard.
“There was one couple, a guy who was a contractor who had been successful during the boom,†she said. “But his business fell apart. His wife had been a nanny who made a good salary, but she was not able to get another job after she had her own baby. The little things that used to be manageable have become more insurmountable.â€
That includes apathy on the part of fellow New Yorkers who would rather believe people are gaming the system than surviving in an otherwise-gilded city, Ms. O’Loughlin said.
“This is something that is easy to walk by,†she said. “There should be outrage. Is this who we really want to be?â€
Keep that in mind when you see a grandmother standing outside a church pantry with an empty shopping cart, not just this week, but every week. And keep in mind that for all her need, there is also gratitude for what she gets and what she gives: comfort food.
“For a grandmother, if you can still give the family a nice meal, you’re still nurturing,†Ms. O’Loughlin said. “You are fortifying people to deal with these circumstances. How are you supposed to deal with all this stuff if you don’t have any comfort?â€
Joey O’Loughlin Dinner made with pantry food simmered in Dina Garcia Torres’s apartment in the Bronx. Nov. 2.Follow @dgbxny and @nytimesphoto on Twitter. Lens is also on Facebook.
In order to view this feature, you must download the latest version of flash player here. 
#flashHeader{visibility:visible !important;}Tony Cenicola thought he was leaving behind the world of being a photo assistant to start his own studio. He had been helping a photographer move into a lower Fifth Avenue studio duplex in 1985 when its owner was struck by something: Mr. Cenicola could pack delicate cameras and gear. Soon, Mr. Cenicola got a call from that photographer to be his assistant. He spent the next 10 years working with Saul Leiter, an important figure in the New York School. Mr. Leiter died late Tuesday night in New York City. Mr. Cenicola, who is now a staff photographer at The New York Times, recalled his time assisting â€" and learning from â€" Mr. Leiter. His conversation with David Gonzalez has been edited into a first-person narrative.
Saul had this studio at 156 Fifth Avenue, a stunning duplex that opened up to a rooftop with a view to the north and the Empire State Building. It was quite a vista, and it was at a time when the whole photo business was simpler and you could have a place like that. Saul was moving out, and I was helping this photographer move in.
The space was beautiful, but I had no idea who Saul was. I knew he was an older photographer, somewhat eccentric. But that’s how I met Saul and Soames, his lady friend; they were a pair for 44 years. They were impressed by the fact that I could pack things without breaking them. Not too long later, he called me and asked if I wanted to help him pack his studio and take stuff to his apartment on 10th Street.
In Saul’s career, this was the low point: he was down to one or two clients. There was a younger crowd of fashion photographers coming in and Saul was getting difficult to work with. He had his own way and didn’t like to follow layouts. He wanted to take his picture. It was occasional jobs that I would assist him on, I would set up lights, meter and bracket for him. I was in charge of fixing things, too, in his apartment. He was totally inept at anything other than art.
Tony Cenicola/The New York Times Saul Leiter in 2010.For the most part, I would go to his apartment and sit and have coffee and be in conversation with him and Soames. He was this character who would talk about art and things. He had a way about him that was, I guess, professorial. He was someone you knew you had to spend as much time with as possible. The two of them together, actually. They would go back and forth. They’d talk about art and artists and art movements and what makes different artists great.
Of course, going to his apartment was really eye-opening: it was filled with art books, his work and Soames’s work. You would sit and have coffee with them, and he’d have a portfolio on his lap of paintings he had done the night before because he couldn’t sleep. He’d ask, “What do you think of this?†He had a way of talking that was self-deprecating and humorous.
He liked working in his neighborhood. We were doing a fashion story for The New York Times Magazine, and he wanted to shoot on the Lower East Side using graffiti tags in the background. He did all these shots, but when the article came out in the magazine, all the graffiti had been retouched out of the pictures! That really infuriated him. He’d have some complaints, but he wasn’t surprised.
Another time he was asked by Comme des Garçons to do a catalog of dress shirts, and they gave him carte blanche to go anywhere in the world. He decided he wanted to work on the blocks around his house. That’s what he liked.
Tony Cenicola/The New York Times Mr. Leiter, circa 1987.We were on 9th Street working when, all of a sudden, this guy comes walking by. Saul picked up his camera and started chasing this guy in a funny way. He’s shooting pictures and chasing him across the street, having this cat-and-mouse thing. He comes back and says in my ear in a low, conspiratorial voice, “Do you know who that was?â€
I did not.
“That was Robert Frank.â€
I was a kid then. I’m 58 now. Life got in the way and I saw him less and less. You don’t go to visit Saul for five minutes. You have to go there for the evening. It got harder and harder to visit him, I had moved upstate, had kids and a full-time job. But I’d still make excuses to come down and see him, but not often enough.
I did see him this week.
Saul had a love of beauty. He didn’t like art that was harsh. He had a way of seeing beauty in everything. I’m always seeing like Saul. I look around and I can take a Saul picture. What I’ve come to realize when I take a picture like that, it’s a Saul picture. I can take a beautiful picture in the style of Saul. What I have to strive to do is take a picture as good as Saul that’s mine.
I’m still working on that.
Tony Cenicola/The New York Times In the style of Saul Leiter. New York. Nov. 26.A film by Tomas Leach, “In No Great Hurry: 13 Lessons in Life With Saul Leiter,†had its premiere in New York at the DOC NYC film festival in Chelsea on Nov. 16. Upcoming screenings include one at the Bath Film Festival in England, on Dec. 4, at the Brotfabrik Kino in Berlin, Dec. 5 through 11 and at the Miami Street Photography Festival on Dec. 6 and 7.
Follow Lens on Facebook and Twitter.
In order to view this feature, you must download the latest version of flash player here. #flashHeader{visibility:visible !important;}Tony Cenicola thought he was leaving behind the world of being a photo assistant to start his own studio. He had been helping a photographer move into a lower Fifth Avenue studio duplex in 1985 when its owner was struck by something: Mr. Cenicola could pack delicate cameras and gear. Soon, Mr. Cenicola got a call from that photographer to be his assistant. He spent the next 10 years working with Saul Leiter, an important figure in the New York School. Mr. Leiter died late Tuesday night in New York City. Mr. Cenicola, who is now a staff photographer at The New York Times, recalled his time assisting â€" and learning from â€" Mr. Leiter. His conversation with David Gonzalez has been edited into a first-person narrative.
Saul had this studio at 156 Fifth Avenue, a stunning duplex that opened up to a rooftop with a view to the north and the Empire State Building. It was quite a vista, and it was at a time when the whole photo business was simpler and you could have a place like that. Saul was moving out, and I was helping this photographer move in.
The space was beautiful, but I had no idea who Saul was. I knew he was an older photographer, somewhat eccentric. But that’s how I met Saul and Soames, his lady friend; they were a pair for 44 years. They were impressed by the fact that I could pack things without breaking them. Not too long later, he called me and asked if I wanted to help him pack his studio and take stuff to his apartment on 10th Street.
In Saul’s career, this was the low point: he was down to one or two clients. There was a younger crowd of fashion photographers coming in and Saul was getting difficult to work with. He had his own way and didn’t like to follow layouts. He wanted to take his picture. It was occasional jobs that I would assist him on, I would set up lights, meter and bracket for him. I was in charge of fixing things, too, in his apartment. He was totally inept at anything other than art.
Tony Cenicola/The New York Times Saul Leiter in 2010.For the most part, I would go to his apartment and sit and have coffee and be in conversation with him and Soames. He was this character who would talk about art and things. He had a way about him that was, I guess, professorial. He was someone you knew you had to spend as much time with as possible. The two of them together, actually. They would go back and forth. They’d talk about art and artists and art movements and what makes different artists great.
Of course, going to his apartment was really eye-opening: it was filled with art books, his work and Soames’s work. You would sit and have coffee with them, and he’d have a portfolio on his lap of paintings he had done the night before because he couldn’t sleep. He’d ask, “What do you think of this?†He had a way of talking that was self-deprecating and humorous.
He liked working in his neighborhood. We were doing a fashion story for The New York Times Magazine, and he wanted to shoot on the Lower East Side using graffiti tags in the background. He did all these shots, but when the article came out in the magazine, all the graffiti had been retouched out of the pictures! That really infuriated him. He’d have some complaints, but he wasn’t surprised.
Another time he was asked by Comme des Garçons to do a catalog of dress shirts, and they gave him carte blanche to go anywhere in the world. He decided he wanted to work on the blocks around his house. That’s what he liked.
Tony Cenicola/The New York Times Mr. Leiter, circa 1987.We were on 9th Street working when, all of a sudden, this guy comes walking by. Saul picked up his camera and started chasing this guy in a funny way. He’s shooting pictures and chasing him across the street, having this cat-and-mouse thing. He comes back and says in my ear in a low, conspiratorial voice, “Do you know who that was?â€
I did not.
“That was Robert Frank.â€
I was a kid then. I’m 58 now. Life got in the way and I saw him less and less. You don’t go to visit Saul for five minutes. You have to go there for the evening. It got harder and harder to visit him, I had moved upstate, had kids and a full-time job. But I’d still make excuses to come down and see him, but not often enough.
I did see him this week.
Saul had a love of beauty. He didn’t like art that was harsh. He had a way of seeing beauty in everything. I’m always seeing like Saul. I look around and I can take a Saul picture. What I’ve come to realize when I take a picture like that, it’s a Saul picture. I can take a beautiful picture in the style of Saul. What I have to strive to do is take a picture as good as Saul that’s mine.
I’m still working on that.
Tony Cenicola/The New York Times In the style of Saul Leiter. New York. Nov. 26.A film by Tomas Leach, “In No Great Hurry: 13 Lessons in Life With Saul Leiter,†had its premiere in New York at the DOC NYC film festival in Chelsea on Nov. 16. Upcoming screenings include one at the Bath Film Festival in England, on Dec. 4, at the Brotfabrik Kino in Berlin, Dec. 5 through 11 and at the Miami Street Photography Festival on Dec. 6 and 7.
Follow Lens on Facebook and Twitter.