Text and photographs by Stephen Harmon
A WSR commenter once said I was only interested in photographing old people sitting on benches, people walking with canes, and people who looked down and out. Here’s a new grouping that proves that wasn’t the case: children, teenagers, and young adults on the Upper West Side in the 1970s and 80s.
I hope you find something to enjoy.
Stephen Harmon is a longtime Upper West Sider, a retired lawyer, and a world-class photographer whose work is on display in many of the city’s museums, including The Museum of the City of New York, The Brooklyn Museum, New York Historical, and The New York Public Library.
Check out our audio interview with Stephen Harmon on Rag Radio — HERE.
Subscribe to West Side Rag’s FREE email newsletter here. And you can Support the Rag here.
These are great! Got any more that speak to the music scene of the time?
OMG! These are the BEST!
How cool would it be if one of your subjects recognized him/herself and wrote back with an update?
I’m most curious to know whatever happened to the first kid (with theginormous boombox), the girl with the rabbit, or the girl just below her, standing in the street.
These are SO awesome!
It might be extra wonderful to capture some photos of NYC youth this week, too, for a little compare/contrast a few years from now. Thank you for posting these!
I love the idea of then/now – compare/contrast – Photos from past/current times on the UWS
This is a GREAT batch!
Beautiful photo collection.
One of my favorite columns on WSR! Thank you, Stephen! Would be great to know the year of each photo. Some of them seem so timeless that it might just well have been shot last week! As the saying goes, The more things change, the more they stay the same…
Now that’s a powered speaker set up.
Beautiful. Thank you, Mr Harmon
This started my day with a smile. Thanks for the great images, Stephen!
I wonder what happened to the little girl with the bunny! She looks so confident, like she knows a secret about you that she’ll never tell.
Cool pics. And here’s a fun fact: That boom-box photo is actually backwards. He’s holding the SHARP GF-777.
Oh, those three children are so happy and lovely! The boy with the little dog–the girl with the rabbit–the girl in that colorful outfit–to die for. And all blessedly free of cell phones in every photo. Heaven.
Always fabulous!
You are SO talented! Thank you for sharing your work with us!
Absolutely amazing. Mr Harmon has the uncanny, almost mystical ability to capture a time and place through photos of regular people and their clothes, accessories and belongings. It is as if in that moment he could see into the future and knew that all this would be iconic one day. Thank you so much Stephen Harmon!
Love the photo of the three children hiding, or ready to surprise someone!
Crazy to think that many of these people would be 60+ now
Love the photos of the youth! That Boom Box, though! 😀 And the cuties with their pets. Adorable!
the girls are just wonderful, how they gaze at the camera and at us!
I think these are some of the best of the best. It doesn’t show the City in the decrepit condition it was in during the late 70s. It demonstrates the optimism, the hope, the brightness yet to come. These kids look happy, they look taken care of and they look optimistic. It truly makes me happy to see the faces of those yet to live their lives – when anything is still possible.
Thanks for that.
Seeing these actually make me really sad. Gone are the days where you can just take pictures of people. You could never get away with that today and we’re losing a lot of history that way. At least there’s 50b selfies out there, I guess……..
These are amazing. I totally see my youth in these. I feel like I even remember some of the kids from high school (highly unlikely, but they look so familiar.)
Thank you for sharing them.