by Jerome D.
Introduction
Richard Sandler (b. 1946, Forest Hills, Queens, New York) is an American street photographer and documentary filmmaker whose black-and-white images of New York and Boston from the late 1970s through the 1990s constitute one of the most honest and humane visual records of American urban life in the late twentieth century — a body of work that stood largely unrecognised for decades before its rediscovery and publication in The Eyes of the City (2016) established him as a photographer of the first rank.
His path to photography was improbable and indirect. After growing up in Queens, he moved to Boston in 1968 to work, successively, as a macrobiotic chef and an acupuncturist — professional lives that bore no relation to the photographic career that followed. The turning point came in 1977, when he was boarding with the motivational psychologist David McClelland and his wife Mary. Mary McClelland gave Sandler her Leica IIIf and taught him to develop film in their basement darkroom. He walked out of that house with a Leica and a working knowledge of film development, and never looked back.
He spent three productive years photographing the streets of Boston before returning to New York in 1980, where the city he found was nothing like the one he had left: crack cocaine, AIDS, urban decay, and violent crime had transformed the streets of the five boroughs into an environment that most photographers avoided or documented from a careful distance. Sandler waded in. Through the 1980s and into the 1990s, he walked the streets of New York with his Leicas — the Lower East Side, Times Square, Coney Island, Harlem — photographing the city's residents with the combination of formal precision and genuine empathy that defines his work at its best.
He attended Garry Winogrand's workshops and was directly influenced by Winogrand's approach to street photography. He was working for The New York Times on photo assignments during this period, carrying full professional kit — multiple lenses, flash, a beeper for the photo desk. In 1992, he made a judgment that very few photographers are honest enough to articulate: he decided he had made his best still photographs. He put the Leica down and picked up a video camera.
His film career produced the documentaries The Gods of Times Square (1999), Brave New York (2004), and Radioactive City (2011), and earned him a Guggenheim Fellowship for filmmaking. When he eventually returned to still photography in his later years, it was with the same Leicas he had put down in 1992 — and with the same quality of attention to the life of the street that had defined his earlier practice.
His photographs are held in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
As he said of his practice: "I am interested in photographing the urban, social, and political soul of the City. My photographs tend toward the humorous, compassionate and surreal."
Camera Gear Used by Richard Sandler
Sandler's gear is documented in exceptional detail in the Japan Camera Hunter interview of February 2022 — one of the most extensive and candid gear interviews in street photography, in which he names every camera and lens he used in his career, describes their specific uses, and tells the story of how his chrome Leica M2 became a black hybrid after an accident. What follows draws directly on that interview, supplemented by Wikipedia's account of his origins and The Independent Photographer's profile of his career.
First Camera: Minolta SRT 101
Minolta SRT 101 — His first camera, used for his initial two months of serious street photography in Boston after Mary McClelland gave him the Leica IIIf. He stated directly: "In my first two months of shooting, I used a Minolta SRT 101, a single lens reflex camera." The Minolta SRT 101 was a solid, professional-grade 35mm SLR — a reliable and highly regarded camera of the era, used by many photographers before the Leica bias became dominant. For Sandler, it was the instrument with which he learned that he could photograph seriously. The Leica followed almost immediately.
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| Minolta SRT 101 Find one at MPB |
The Camera That Started Everything: Leica IIIf (red dial)
Leica IIIf (red dial) — The camera that changed his life, gifted to him by Mary McClelland in 1977. He confirmed this directly in the Japan Camera Hunter interview: "I was gifted a Leica IIIf, red dial." Wikipedia confirms the same event from a different angle: "Mary gave Sandler her Leica 3F in 1977 and taught him how to develop film in their basement darkroom." The Leica IIIf was a screw-mount rangefinder — a pre-M system Leica, more compact and simpler than the later M bodies — that he used on the streets of Boston for his first serious years of photography. The red dial variant, introduced in 1954, added a flash synchronisation dial and is distinguished by its red flash sync dial on the top plate.
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| Leica IIIf Find one at MPB |
Primary Career Camera: Leica M2 (black hybrid)
Leica M2 (black, hybrid body) — His primary camera, confirmed in the Japan Camera Hunter interview: "A year and a half later, I bought my Leica M2." The story of how this camera became black is one of the most specific and entertaining equipment narratives in this profile series.
Originally a chrome M2, Sandler dropped it from a tripod onto a marble-tiled floor on a job for Barron's magazine. He took it to Leica New Jersey for repair. The technician told him that both the top and bottom plate needed replacing, and asked: "Would you like the top and bottom plate replaced with a chrome or black part?" Sandler's answer was immediate: "Definitely black!" The technician re-engraved the original serial number — which had been on the chrome camera — onto the new black enamel top plate. The result was a hybrid: a camera whose serial number records it as a chrome M2, but whose body is black. In Sandler's own words: "If you look up the serial number, it is listed as a chrome body. But it's a hybrid now."
He used this black M2 — fitted with a Leica Summicron 35mm f/2 — as his primary camera for street photography throughout his New York years.
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| Leica M2 Find one at MPB |
Secondary Camera: Leica M4-P
Leica M4-P — His confirmed second body, used alongside the M2 on the street. He described his two-body setup directly in the Japan Camera Hunter interview: "I did use two bodies on the street, one (Leica M2) with a 35mm f/2 Leica Summicron and the other (Leica M4-P) with a 28mm f/2.8 Leica Elmarit." The M4-P was a refined version of the M4 chassis, introduced in 1981, with viewfinder frames for 28mm and 75mm lenses in addition to the standard 35mm, 50mm, and 90mm frames. Carrying a pre-loaded second body with a different focal length — rather than switching lenses in the field — was a standard practice among working photojournalists of his era.
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| Leica M4-P Find one at MPB |
Lenses
Leica Summicron 35mm f/2 — His primary lens, used on the Leica M2. Confirmed directly in the Japan Camera Hunter interview. The 35mm Summicron is one of the classic street photography lenses — wide enough to include environmental context, close enough to maintain intimacy with the subject, and fast enough at f/2 to work in the variable light of New York streets across all seasons.
Leica Elmarit-M 28mm f/2.8 — His secondary lens, used on the Leica M4-P. Confirmed directly in the same interview. The 28mm gave him a wider field of view for busy street scenes, subway interiors, and situations where he needed to include more of the environment without retreating further from the subject.
50mm, 90mm lenses (for New York Times work) — Confirmed in the Japan Camera Hunter interview as part of his professional kit for NYT assignments: "a 90mm, 50mm, 35mm, 28mm lens, a light meter, and a Vivitar 285 flash." When working on newspaper assignments rather than personal street photography, he carried the full range of focal lengths that editorial work might require.
Flash and Accessories
Vivitar 285 flash — Confirmed for New York Times assignments. The Vivitar 285 was one of the most popular and capable portable flash units of the 1980s — a powerful, reliable tool that Sandler carried specifically for editorial work, not for personal street photography. His personal work was made in available light.
Handheld light meter — Confirmed in the Japan Camera Hunter interview as standard equipment for his professional kit. The Leica M cameras of his era had TTL metering on some models but he carried a separate light meter as part of his NYT equipment.
Film Stock
Black-and-white film (panchromatic) — Sandler shot exclusively in black-and-white throughout his street photography career, consistent with the tradition of New York street photography he was working within. His first experience of film development came from Mary McClelland's basement darkroom. The specific film stocks he used are not confirmed by name in available primary sources and are therefore not listed here by brand — though his images' tonal range and grain character are consistent with Kodak Tri-X or Ilford HP5 at standard development.
Technique and Style
Richard Sandler's photography is defined by the comedy and tragedy of public life in a damaged city. His New York images from the 1980s and early 1990s are not celebrations of urban vibrancy or lamentations of urban decline — they are something more nuanced and more honest than either: a clear-eyed, often funny, always compassionate record of what it looked and felt like to be alive in New York at one of the most difficult and fascinating periods in the city's history.
He was directly influenced by Garry Winogrand's workshops — an influence visible in his willingness to photograph the full range of New York life, his comfort with the camera as an intrusive presence, and his instinct for the moment of visual incongruity or comedy that gives the best street photography its staying power. But where Winogrand's images were often formally ambitious and visually complex, Sandler's work has a more direct, journalistic quality — images that communicate immediately and that carry their meaning on the surface rather than in layers of formal complexity.
His use of two camera bodies with different focal lengths — 35mm on the M2, 28mm on the M4-P — gave him the flexibility to respond to different spatial situations without changing lenses. In practice, on the streets of New York, this meant the ability to switch from a slightly wider view of a busy pavement to a more intimate close-up framing without the pause and disruption of a lens change. Both cameras were always ready.
The moment in 1992 when he decided he had made his best still photographs — and put the Leica down to pick up a video camera — is one of the most self-aware moments in this profile series. Very few photographers are honest enough to acknowledge that they may have done their best work. Sandler's willingness to act on that judgment, rather than continuing to produce work out of habit or commercial necessity, reflects the same clarity of vision that defines the photographs themselves.
His subsequent return to still photography, after his film career, produced images that show the same qualities — formal precision, humanist empathy, a willingness to stand close and to press the shutter at the moment that reveals rather than conceals — that defined his work in the 1980s. New York had changed. The approach had not.
How to Imitate His Style in Post-Processing
Sandler's black-and-white aesthetic — direct, high contrast in places, with the specific grain and tonal range of 1980s New York street photography — is grounded in available light and the properties of pushed or standard-speed panchromatic film. Pixlr is an excellent tool for approaching this look:
Embrace the imperfect exposure.
His images from the 1980s were not made under controlled conditions — they were made fast, in whatever light was available on a New York street in December or July. In Pixlr's Curves tool, do not over-correct exposures that are slightly dark or slightly bright. The imperfection of available-light exposure is part of the aesthetic. Correct only what genuinely needs correcting.
Build contrast from deep shadows.
The New York streets he photographed were full of deep shadows — overhangs, subway entrances, the shade between buildings. In Pixlr's Curves tool, deepen the shadow end of the curve to give the image the weight of the city's shade, while keeping the highlight end open to preserve the luminosity of faces and surfaces in direct light.
Keep the grain visible and organic.
1980s New York street photography, on Tri-X or HP5, has a specific grain character — coarser than fine-grain film, organic in structure, and present throughout the image. In Pixlr's Film Grain tool, use a moderate-to-heavy setting at a fine-to-medium grain size that gives the image the analogue texture of fast black-and-white film without becoming grungy.
Do not over-sharpen.
His images have presence without the hyper-sharpened quality of modern digital photography. Apply output sharpening in Pixlr only at the level required by the output medium. The image should feel immediate and present, not technically perfect.
How to Shoot Like Richard Sandler
Accept the camera as a gift and learn from whoever gives it to you.
Mary McClelland gave Sandler a Leica and taught him to develop film in her basement. Without that gift and that instruction, his career would not have happened. Be open to the serendipitous introduction to photography from an unexpected direction. The camera that changes your life may come from someone you would not have expected.
Carry two bodies with different focal lengths.
His confirmed practice — M2 with 35mm, M4-P with 28mm — is one of the most practical working setups in street photography. Two loaded bodies, two focal lengths, no lens changes in the field. Identify which two focal lengths cover the majority of your shooting situations and carry a body loaded for each.
Walk the difficult streets, not the beautiful ones.
His New York was the crack epidemic, the AIDS crisis, the homeless crisis, the collapse of public housing — the city at its most difficult and most visually raw. He walked those streets rather than retreating to the gentrified neighbourhoods where photography was safer and less confronting. Photograph the reality of the city you live in, not the curated version of it.
Separate your commercial kit from your personal vision.
For NYT assignments, he carried the full professional kit: 90mm, 50mm, 35mm, 28mm, flash, light meter, beeper. For personal street photography, he carried the two Leicas and his eye. The commercial work paid the bills; the personal work was where the vision lived. Maintain a clear distinction between the work you do for others and the work you do for yourself.
Know when to stop.
His 1992 decision that he had made his best still photographs — and the honesty to act on it by switching to film — is one of the most important creative decisions in this profile series. Staying with a medium out of habit or fear of change produces work that declines in quality. Have the courage to follow your vision when it leads you somewhere new.
Come back to the Leica when you need it.
He returned to still photography after his film career. The cameras were still there. The eye was still there. The city had changed; the practice had not. A photographic practice that has genuinely formed you can be set down and picked up again, and it will still be yours.
Legacy
Richard Sandler's legacy is the rediscovered kind — work that was made, mostly unseen, over fifteen years of dedicated practice, and that found its audience three decades after the fact. The Eyes of the City (2016) arrived at a moment when interest in the photography of 1980s New York was high — when the city's pre-gentrification visual history had become a subject of genuine cultural interest — and it demonstrated conclusively that Sandler had been making images of exceptional quality throughout a period when almost no one was paying attention to them.
His attendance at Garry Winogrand's workshops places him in a direct lineage from the most important street photographer of the twentieth century. His New York of the 1980s stands alongside the work of Bruce Davidson, Larry Clark, and Andrew Savulich as a primary visual document of a city in crisis — photography that was not aestheticising that crisis but engaging with it honestly, at close range, with a camera and a willingness to be present.
The permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, which hold his work, have confirmed that the rediscovery of his photographs is not merely nostalgia but a genuine recognition of their art historical significance. He is now represented by galleries internationally and his prints are actively sought by collectors.
His documentary films — particularly The Gods of Times Square, which documented the street preachers, hustlers, and performers of pre-Disney Times Square — extend his practice in a direction that was consistent with his photographic vision: the same places, the same people, the same directness, captured now in motion rather than in the still frame.
Books by Richard Sandler
The Eyes of the City (2016, powerHouse Books) — His major monograph, the book that brought his work to international attention. A selection of photographs from Boston and New York between 1977 and just before September 11, 2001, covering the full arc of his still photography career. Essential viewing for anyone interested in the visual history of late twentieth-century New York.
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| see it at Amazon |
Where to See Richard Sandler's Work
- Website: richardsandler.com — his official site, with portfolio, biography, and contact information.
- Instagram: @richard_sandler_photos — his active Instagram account.
- Museum collections: His work is held in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
- Secondary market: Prints available through Artnet.
- Documentary films: The Gods of Times Square (1999) and Brave New York (2004) are available through his website and selected streaming platforms — essential companions to understanding his photographic vision extended into film.
Conclusion
Richard Sandler walked the streets of New York and Boston from 1977 to 1992 with a Leica IIIf, then a Leica M2 (chrome original, black hybrid after a fall) fitted with a Summicron 35mm f/2, and a Leica M4-P fitted with an Elmarit 28mm f/2.8. For New York Times assignments he supplemented these with a full professional kit: 50mm and 90mm lenses, a handheld light meter, and a Vivitar 285 flash. He shot exclusively in black-and-white. In 1992 he decided he had made his best photographs, put the Leica down, and made films for two decades before returning to still photography in his later years.
His most celebrated photographs — the crack epidemic New York of the 1980s, the sidewalk encounters and subway faces of a damaged city — were largely unseen for thirty years. They are now in museum collections and in print, evidence that serious photography made in difficult places, with a good eye and a pair of Leicas, can outlast the conditions that made it necessary.
"I am interested in photographing the urban, social, and political soul of the City. My photographs tend toward the humorous, compassionate and surreal."
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