Picture of the Week #295 "Every Day is a Hard Day" New York City, NY 1972 Signed & Stamped

This is one of my most powerful images. If you think you are having a bad day just imagine what this poor, homeless and legless man has to cope with on a daily basis. This image as well as others that I have posted all came from one day of shooting on the Bowery in New York. The Bowery was different in those days. It was where the homeless, and the downtrodden existed. I can't say lived as this is a terrible way to go through life. I do not know why this man has one leg, or if he served in the military, or was born that way. I didn't have much conversation with the street people. I was there as I was producing & directing a music video for a rock group called "Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show". The song was titled "Carry Me". I was not sure how to portray alcoholism in a music video so I set out for where I knew they congregated, the Bowery. I snuck pictures at first and then was caught by a very mean looking  man with a schooner tattooed to his chest. He demanded a quarter. I gave it to him. He became my guide and my protector. It cost me thirty dollars that day but it was perhaps the best expenditure I ever made to capture the under belly of America at that time. Sadly this is now all too common. Then it was centralized.