Pedestrians - Street Photography in New York City

Written By Paul Foley

These pictures are part of a series I made in the 2 minutes and 26 seconds after 3.38pm on October 19, 2013.

I had been walking along West 53rd Street when I noticed how the sun, shining down Fifthth Avenue, was being bounced around by the high-rises and shop fronts. It was not the first time I had found backlighting with beautiful front fill light on the streets of New York City.

I photographed during a single lights change, standing still, as shoppers, tourists and business people walked past me, heading downtown. No one paid attention to me and I didn't really concentrate on any particular face - it was all happening so quickly.

Which explains why I only noticed the kid picking his nose much later.

Paul Foley

I am an Australian fine-art photographer based in Newcastle, New South Wales, and have been making photographs for more than fifty years, including 35 years as a professional commercial photographer.

I think of much of my personal work simply as finding pictures—looking for relationships between light and shadow, lines and shapes, landscape and humanity. My photographs range across landscape, the sea, abstraction and the human form, with recurring interests in time, place and memory.

I remain a generalist photographer. Some ideas develop into collections that I return to over many years; others appear unexpectedly and result in a single photograph.

My work has been recognised in Australian and international photography awards and exhibited in Australia and overseas. Including as a finalist in the Galah Regional Photography Prize (2025) and National Photographic Portrait Prize (2011), selected to hang in several 'Mosman 2088' exhibitions and included in group exhibitions in Glasgow, Tokyo, Newcastle and China. I have also had individual and collaborative exhibitions in Sydney and Newcastle.

I live in Newcastle, Australia.

https://www.paulfoley.com.au
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