Welcome to the Slices of Time Street Photography podcast. Today, I’m joined by Amy Horowitz, a street photographer from New York in the US—a photographer who spots great subjects on the streets and dares to take their portraits.
Follow Amy Horowitz:
- Website: https://amyhorowitzphotography.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dont_smile_nyc/
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You can follow me on several social media for updates about the episodes:
- BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/fredpaulussen.bsky.social
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fredpaulussen/
- My website: www.fredericpaulussen.be
Timestamps of this episode with Amy Horowitz
00:00 Introduction to Street Photography and Amy Horowitz
02:51 Amy’s Journey Back to New York and Photography
06:00 The Transition to Street Portraits
08:16 The Concept Behind ‘The Walk in the Park’ Book
11:54 Capturing Vulnerability in Young Adults
14:55 The Don’t Smile Philosophy in Portrait Photography
18:02 Engaging with Subjects and Building Connections
20:55 The Role of Community in Street Photography
23:59 Documenting Protests and Historical Moments
27:00 Women in Street Photography and Community Support
30:04 The Balance of Candid and Portrait Photography
30:47 Exploring Street Photography Festivals
32:59 The Art of Candid Photography
36:01 Lens Choices and Their Impact
38:57 Workshops: Learning and Growth
43:04 The Challenge of Photo Selection
47:06 The Excitement of Publishing a Book
Photographers, resources, and gear mentioned in this episode:
- A walk in Park? Photobook
- Fotofest
- Schilt Publishing
- Nikon Z7
- Women Street Photographers
- Gulnara Lyabib Samoilova
- Nina Welch-Kling
- Danielle Goldstein
- Vivian Mayer
- Diane Arbus
- Helen Levitt
- Berenice Abbott
- Julia Coddington
- Rammy Narula
- Darren Sacks
Thank you for listening to this conversation with Amy. Don’t forget to subscribe to be updated about upcoming episodes. Feel free to reach out via social media if you have any questions or ideas you’d like to share.
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Podcast Transcript
Frederic Paulussen (00:00)
So, welcome to the Slice of Time Street Photography Podcast, episode 20 already, a year in the podcast, so that’s very nice to see that we’re still going. Today I’m joined by Amy Horowitz, a street photographer from New York in the US, and a photographer who in my eyes spots very great subjects on the streets and dares to take their portraits really goes into… ⁓
like you really make contact with your subjects. So that’s, I think, a very interesting topic to talk about. So maybe Amy, could you introduce yourself for a minute here?
Amy Horowitz (00:38)
Yes, thank you. I wanted to first say thank you for having me, for reaching out to have me on your show. I really appreciate it. I’ve been living in New York for, I don’t know, since 2020 or so. I lived here when I graduated college for a couple of years and then got married and moved to suburbia. after I raised my children, came back. And the first thing I did was start taking photography classes.
Frederic Paulussen (00:44)
Yeah, thank you for making the time.
Amy Horowitz (01:06)
And that’s where my interest peaked and got going.
Frederic Paulussen (01:10)
That’s cool. like more or less five years now that you live back in New York and are doing photography. That’s cool. was yeah, it was, I mean, yeah, for me, I’m not from, from New York. So suburbia is the wider region or does that.
Amy Horowitz (01:15)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I love this city.
Suburbia
is like, it’s more residential and you live more in your cars going from place to place. It’s not as walkable generally, you know, to stores or, you know, things like that. But it’s a nice place to raise children, you know, the green open spaces with the lawn and everything.
Frederic Paulussen (01:41)
Okay, yeah.
And is it like close to New York? Is it like easy to go?
Amy Horowitz (01:47)
I would say about an hour
with no traffic drive. So I’d say most big cities have like a suburb area where it’s more residential, so yeah. It’s a very different kind of life. I couldn’t wait to get back to New York.
Frederic Paulussen (01:51)
With no traffic, yeah, okay. Yeah. Okay.
Yeah, I can imagine. No, but because New York is like a very wide and also you have like for example, Brooklyn, which is almost like a city in itself. It’s all these places. So for me, for me, it’s like I live in suburbs of Antwerp, but it’s 15 minutes by bike and I’m in the city center. So it’s similar, but it’s yeah, but it’s totally different. So, and what brought you back to New York City? Was it a photography or?
Amy Horowitz (02:18)
You feel like you’re in both? You feel like you live in both? Yeah, it’s more separate.
I just always
wanted to. So, you know, my kids grew up and left the house and ⁓ a couple of them lived here and I always wanted to live here. So come back, actually. No, no.
Frederic Paulussen (02:32)
Okay.
Okay, so it was not photography related to go back to the city. And
then how did you… So why did moving back to New York spark the photography?
Amy Horowitz (02:51)
So, well, I always
love the city and I always love photography. So, you know, when you’re raising, when you’re, don’t know if you have children, but when you’re raising children, I was very focused on that. So, you know, I kind of set myself aside. So then when I came to the city, I’m like, okay, what would I like to do? And then I started taking classes at the International Center for Photography. ⁓ Then COVID happened, then the classes were online, but I continued. And it just, I was so interested and it’s been great.
Frederic Paulussen (03:19)
Okay. And
there was no history of photography, like doing it in school or whatever?
Amy Horowitz (03:25)
⁓ No, you know, I just took
pictures of my children and you know, it serves different purposes for me. We had a lake house at one point and I’m somewhat of an anxious person. So taking photographs ⁓ took away my fear. I didn’t focus on my kids in water where I couldn’t see down below because you you really can’t see down in the lake. ⁓ I would just take pictures all day and that would keep me calm and keep me doing something and I just enjoyed it. I always have.
Frederic Paulussen (03:54)
And did you take photos of the kids doing the things that caused the anxiety? Yeah.
Amy Horowitz (03:59)
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We would
have friends and families come and back then it wasn’t digital, it was film. So I would always run to the store, get the film developed and I would get multiple copies and send it to all our guests. So it became like a little project for me, taking photos of each weekend and then sending them to everyone.
Frederic Paulussen (04:15)
That’s cool, yeah.
That’s very nice. ⁓ And so now you focus more on people on the street. How did that come about? ⁓
Amy Horowitz (04:27)
The way that started
was probably from the classes I was taking. So during COVID, you know, we had to do different projects every week or an ongoing project and I was doing architecture. There were no people on the streets. There were no cars. It was so easy to get all the beautiful architecture in the city because it was unobstructed. ⁓ But after a while, I found that kind of boring. I wanted to talk to people. ⁓ So I just happened to take a photograph of a drag queen. I just came upon them.
Frederic Paulussen (04:46)
Yeah.
Amy Horowitz (04:57)
And it was funny because they were changing out of their heels into Birkenstocks, into more comfortable shoes. And they said, OK, if you can only photograph me from the waist up, because I don’t want anybody to see me in these shoes. And I did. And my professor at that time loved the picture and said, you know, not everybody can do portraits. ⁓ You think this is something you might be interested in. And then I did. And then I just kept going. I was very nervous at first. ⁓
I would take someone’s picture and practically run away when I was finished. You know, not even ask their name or anything. I was just so happy to have asked the question and done it. Then okay, I was like on to the next thing. But after doing it and doing it and doing it, much more, it’s a whole different thing now. Now I’m much more relaxed and I can talk to people and it’s great.
Frederic Paulussen (05:43)
Yeah, that’s very, very cool. Because it’s ⁓ a part of anxiety for a lot of people. Like talking to people in the streets, even if you’re photographer, it’s not the easiest.
Amy Horowitz (05:53)
Yeah, you just don’t know if people
are going to say no or how they might react. You know, if you’ve never done it before, you know, it’s hard.
Frederic Paulussen (05:57)
Yeah.
Exactly.
And so what caused you to photograph the drag queen? Was it because you found it interesting or was it because you were bored, just bored?
Amy Horowitz (06:07)
It interesting. No, just interesting. No, just a
very interesting that that person just looked very interesting to me. And I’m like, wow, I should just try and get their picture. I know. I mean, there’s so many interesting and unexpected things you run into in the city that I just I thrive on it. I’ve come to expect the unexpected.
Frederic Paulussen (06:16)
Yeah.
I can imagine, That’s great.
And so now you worked on a book, it’s finished. ⁓ And it’s, yeah. Can you say something about the book?
Amy Horowitz (06:33)
Yeah. Oh, yeah. The book is called The
Walk in the Park with a question mark. And it’s basically because I shoot most of my, I shoot adolescents, not adolescents, young adults for the most part in and around the West Village area, which is where I live and in Washington Square Park, which is a famous park in New York, very creative, a lot of history there. And there’s a lot of…
universities and colleges here. So there’s a lot of young, it’s a very young, vibrant area. So I just take a stroll and run into all these young adults and I just find them fascinating. So I’ve been doing that since about 2020, 2021, and I’ve collected thousands and I put together a book. I went to, I’ll backtrack. I went to something called Fotofest in Houston, Texas, a couple of years ago, a portfolio review.
where for three days, you you go, you pay, and then you go around and meet with all these different publishers, magazine editors, museum curators, and you see if anybody has interests, and they give you feedback. And one of the publishers was interested, Schilt Publishing was interested, and we continued talking, and then we started working on the book. So it’s finished, and ⁓ it will be out in mid-September.
Frederic Paulussen (07:53)
That’s great, yeah.
Amy Horowitz (07:58)
for distribution and some pre-order now. You can pre-order it on Amazon or the publisher’s website.
Frederic Paulussen (07:58)
That’s cool. So that’s, that’s
great. I will link that in the description, of course, in the show notes for people interested, because I think it will be an amazing book. And so what made, so why the question mark, first of all?
Amy Horowitz (08:16)
Okay, well, basically, you know, a walk in the park, the phrase kind of means something is easy. And that time of life, that transition from young adulthood to adulthood, it is fraught with so many different feelings. It’s almost tumultuous. It’s not always a walk in the park. For some it is. For some of the young adults, they’re very focused. They know what they’re doing. They’re on a good path. Some of them are lost.
Frederic Paulussen (08:24)
Yeah.
Amy Horowitz (08:46)
have mental issues. So it’s not always an easy time. It speaks to the vulnerability they have and our times, things that are going on in the country right now. ⁓ Climate change, politically, ⁓ democracy being threatened. There’s so many things that kids are dealing with that I didn’t deal with as a young adult. I didn’t have the internet.
as a young adult. So I wasn’t even as focused on the news. They know everything and they have an opinion on everything and it affects them. So it’s not always a walk in the park.
Frederic Paulussen (09:23)
Okay that’s a very good answer, Wow, that’s great. And so was that also the reason why you focused on these young people specifically?
Amy Horowitz (09:34)
I think
I just, I don’t know, I think everybody relates to that time of their life. You know, I think it’s a very impactful time of your life. I lived through mine, I lived through my kids, and now I see these kids. you know, I am a mother. I feel sort of motherly towards all the ones I photograph in a way. Oddly, I care about them. You know, of the subjects, I keep in touch with many of them. We follow each other on Instagram.
You know, I see something good happening in their life, I’ll comment, or something bad is happening. You know, I’ll feel bad, wait for something to change. ⁓ I like seeing the transformation, because New York, even though it’s a big city, it’s kind of small. Like ⁓ there was one person I photographed early on, Jared, and took their picture. And then about a week or so later, I’m all the way uptown.
and I ran into them again. So we joked, you again? And I ran into them several times. And then each time I’ll try and take their picture if it’s possible. know, situations like that, you know, I could see ⁓ somebody else I photographed had like, they were a cutter, you know, they had mental problems and they would cut their skin. But now I see they turn their life around. You know, it’s just, it’s nice. It’s nice to see when the good things happen.
Frederic Paulussen (10:49)
yeah, okay.
That’s very cool. Yeah. think like for street photographers you’re very close to your subject because you eventually get to know them personally. Yeah. That’s, that’s, I think that’s very nice.
Amy Horowitz (11:08)
Yeah, mean some, not
all. I mean, I might find somebody crossing the street, take their picture in two minutes and that be that. You know what I mean? And if I get their name, but if I can, you know, I’m sort of a regular in that park now. So I know the other photographers there. There are some of the kids that are always there that come back. Some that have gone to school, graduated and then come back or live around here. So I do see them often.
Frederic Paulussen (11:14)
Yeah, of course.
Yeah.
And so you mentioned just like, you know, you see someone walk the street and go to them fast. Is there, did you have like a certain, ⁓ well, maybe routine or is it more or approach? Yeah.
Amy Horowitz (11:44)
You mean an approach? You mean an approach? ⁓
I just pretty much go up and say, can I take your portrait? Just as simple as that. And then if they hesitate, I’ll say, ⁓ you don’t even have to smile. In fact, I prefer you not to smile. And that sort of breaks the ice. And they get relaxed, because a lot of them will either say, I never smile, and it’ll be fine, and they’ll just do it.
Frederic Paulussen (11:54)
Yeah.
Amy Horowitz (12:13)
Or some will just crack up laughing and then they compose themselves. And I like that because I find after they laugh, they’re more relaxed. You know, if we kind of go with it, you know, I joke, I don’t like my picture taken, which is true. ⁓ But I just ask, just like that. Sometimes if they hesitate, I’ll show them my Instagram so they can see what I’m doing. And I’m not just some weirdo who wants to take their picture, you know. I think it’s also easier for me because I’m a woman. I think I’m not as threatening.
Frederic Paulussen (12:37)
Yeah. Okay.
Amy Horowitz (12:43)
You know, I think maybe, you know, a young girl, a man coming out, they might not want to get their picture taken. I don’t know. But, you know, I am.
Frederic Paulussen (12:52)
I think it’s the energy you bring that makes… I think, maybe as a woman it’s… well, maybe easier, but I think as a man it’s still possible, but yeah.
Amy Horowitz (13:01)
It’s possible, of course. There several male portrait photographers who are great at it. I’m just saying, I find for me, I think I’m not threatening and they usually say yes.
Frederic Paulussen (13:04)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay. And it’s, it’s, you just do like the one question, like, I take your photo? Because for a lot of, like a lot of advice is like compliment the person, tell them why and this and that for you, that’s not really happening.
Amy Horowitz (13:23)
It depends. might, if something,
I’m drawn to them, like, you know, I love their hair color or like what they’re wearing or, you know, you’re so interesting looking, you know, then we might start talking. You know, I’ll ask them if they go to school around here, what they’re interested, what they’re studying, what they’re doing. You know, I’ll ask them if we have the time. You know, it’s tricky because sometimes they’re with their friends. I don’t usually like to pull people away from their friends.
Frederic Paulussen (13:42)
Yeah.
No, of course, yeah.
Amy Horowitz (13:49)
And sometimes
you don’t want to photograph their friends because they’re not as interesting. it depends.
Frederic Paulussen (13:54)
Yeah, okay. And so it can be like 20 seconds or it can be like 10 minutes. It sounds yeah, yeah, it’s a wide range. That’s cool. did you with people that you like Jared you mentioned, do you for the book, for example, do you have like a series of them growing or
Amy Horowitz (14:00)
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
I have a couple, there’s
a handful where I have a couple pictures of the same person and then you can see how they changed. So in the book is really, I write an introduction about why I’m doing this book and what the book’s about and on the inside flaps I have some words about, it’s really their words. For a while there I carried index cards and I would ask the people I shoot, tell me something about yourself.
Frederic Paulussen (14:21)
Yeah, okay.
Amy Horowitz (14:42)
that somebody looking at you who doesn’t know you wouldn’t know. And then they tell me, and their answers are on the inside jacket of the book. So we have a bit of their voices in there as well. But when you ask about, yeah, people answered real serious, you know, like they hate themselves or, you know, real heady answers, or they might say, I can touch my nose with my tongue. Like they say like silly things or serious things, it depends.
Frederic Paulussen (14:51)
That’s cool.
That’s a tough question.
Amy Horowitz (15:12)
But in reading it, you get a sense of that time. the reason I bring it up, I talk in circles, but the reason I bring it up is because when you said taking pictures of people repeatedly over time, I don’t put their names in and I don’t just say this is the same person. I think you could figure it out just seeing it. So the book is just the images in the middle of the book, the whole book.
Frederic Paulussen (15:37)
Okay,
yeah, okay, that’s nice. And then you already mentioned it with there’s like the don’t smile mantra. I think you saw something about…
Amy Horowitz (15:50)
⁓ my Instagram is
don’t smile NYC with underscores in between the words and no apostrophe and don’t. ⁓ I started that. First of all, I was trying to find a catchy sort of Instagram name. And at the time in my studies and everything I was learning, I thought the better portraits that I had seen did not have a smile. And part of that is
Frederic Paulussen (15:56)
Yeah.
Amy Horowitz (16:19)
A good portrait, want the viewer to spend time with the portrait. And I think a smile, like a say cheese kind of smile is just, ⁓ here’s a happy person. Like you don’t really go deeper than that when you see that big sort of fake smile. And I didn’t like that. I wanted genuine people. I wanted the portraits to show, you know, something interesting about them visually, but also like the vulnerability.
because everybody is vulnerable, but at that time, I would say even more so. And I wanted that to come out. So I didn’t want that forced say cheese smile. So that’s why I started with don’t smile NYC. ⁓ But I would say over time, I got a little bit more relaxed with that. Like now, if I catch somebody and they start smiling during the session, I’ll keep snapping, I’ll keep shooting.
because I find like a real genuine smile that just comes out of nowhere can be great. you I’ve learned, as an artist, you start one way and you have a set thing in your head, maybe rules or whatever, but you evolve and you learn new things as you go, which is great. You always learn new things in photography. So I just find that the expressions sometimes are just as good.
Frederic Paulussen (17:36)
That’s definitely true.
Yeah, very much so. But I also like on your website, as you said, it’s very… the people feel more authentic because they don’t have the fake smile.
Amy Horowitz (17:57)
It also puts them at ease, like I said, they start laughing, you know, they can’t stop smiling then, you know, so.
Frederic Paulussen (18:02)
Yeah and also often the people are very aware of their teeth. Like if you ask like I’m a portrait photographer as like a job so I do the headshot so it’s usually smiling people. But people are very like self-conscious about their teeth like ah I don’t want to. So I think that’s a nice trick as well to to be
Amy Horowitz (18:22)
really? Yeah?
Frederic Paulussen (18:25)
put people at ease to not have them smile too much. It’s always, people are always talking about their teeth, like all the rest is fine. but yeah. So it’s very recognizable. And so you went to the photo fest last year and did you, or.
Amy Horowitz (18:33)
That’s so funny.
Now it was probably
two April’s ago, maybe two years ago, April.
Frederic Paulussen (18:51)
Okay,
so a while ago, and did you…
Amy Horowitz (18:53)
So it happened
quickly, the book happened quickly.
Frederic Paulussen (18:56)
Yeah, so three years more or less and did you stop shooting or was it more like okay, I have the… yeah.
Amy Horowitz (18:59)
I continued to shoot,
I select when I met the publisher, ⁓ he said, send me ⁓ 50 photos in tier A, 50 in tier B, and 50 in tier C, just to see your work, thinking we would only publish the first 50, but use the other ones for if we wanted to substitute something for any reason for the flow. And he came back and he wanted to use all of them.
Frederic Paulussen (19:13)
Mm-hmm.
Amy Horowitz (19:25)
So I think there’s over, actually there’s more, there’s over 160 images in the book. So I think part of the appeal of the book was that I have so many and that’s, you know, it’s like more of a documentation of a time in a way.
Frederic Paulussen (19:30)
That’s a lot, yeah.
Hmm.
That’s cool, yeah. so, it, yeah, 160 photos. That’s quite a lot. So you took them over three years or did you keep adding to them? Okay.
Amy Horowitz (19:52)
⁓ Over about five years, I kept shooting. I
shoot every day if I can. Well, it’s just, yeah, I guess so. I like it. I venture out, I’ve done a few workshops and I play around with Candid Street Photography. I admire so many other photographers when I see their candid shots on the street. It’s like, I wanna learn how to do that. ⁓ And I do, ⁓ but I’m still drawn to shooting the portraits.
Frederic Paulussen (19:58)
You’re still working on the project actually or…
Amy Horowitz (20:21)
I don’t know if I’ll ever stop. I’m not sure. I might do a different subgroup. I sometimes think maybe I’ll do older adults or, you know, just to get a different perspective. I’m not sure.
Frederic Paulussen (20:24)
Okay.
Yeah.
I find you have very interesting candid ones as well. There’s the one with the snake which is to me… that’s very New York. ⁓ To me you wouldn’t be able to see it here that quickly I think. ⁓ So you’re more attracted to the portrait side and the…
Amy Horowitz (20:39)
the snake one, yeah. That’s gotten a lot of attention.
Yeah.
I do both.
I’ll say ⁓ since I started Instagram, I came up with Don’t Smile. So during the week, ⁓ Monday through Saturday I post portraits generally. And then on Sunday I’ve created Switch Up Sunday where I post something else. So at first I started doing anything but a portrait. I tried to do faceless portraits where you’d see the hand or the face was obscured.
Frederic Paulussen (21:12)
Okay.
Amy Horowitz (21:21)
things like that. So now I kind of opened it up to anything different other than a portrait. So I dabble in it a little, but it’s just a small part of my work. Hope to get bigger. Yeah, I’ve been posting every, I’m very disciplined, I have to say. So I made a rule for myself that I wanted to every day. So I don’t think, I think I only missed a day twice maybe when my account was taken down for whatever reason or something happened to my account, which happens. ⁓
Frederic Paulussen (21:30)
Yeah, but that’s a lot of posting. No, that’s it.
Yeah.
Amy Horowitz (21:51)
But other than that, I post every day. It just kind of keeps me going.
Frederic Paulussen (21:53)
Okay,
that’s very disciplined and like how do you… ⁓
Amy Horowitz (21:58)
But I don’t work.
I don’t have like a nine to five job.
Frederic Paulussen (22:02)
Okay, but
still, how do you keep up with the feeding it, so to speak? Like you go, you make photos every day then or? Okay, wow.
Amy Horowitz (22:08)
I know, I try. don’t, you
know, I collect a lot, you know, I just keep collecting them.
Frederic Paulussen (22:17)
Wow, that’s yeah, then maybe it’s doable. For me, I used to post every three days and last week I decided like every four days is plenty because I just need to… Yeah, and then you have to do work of course for me and yeah, there’s a lot of… You can keep busy.
Amy Horowitz (22:29)
It’s a lot to keep up with.
Yeah, for sure.
Frederic Paulussen (22:41)
Yeah, if you live close to the park and if you have the time, it’s great. Yeah. Yeah, so it’s a small compact, or like not a compact camera, but… Okay, yeah, same, yeah. Yeah, well, for my street photography, I use like the Z, I have it here, Z7, two it is, I think, and now I have like a 28.
Amy Horowitz (22:45)
Yeah, I can fit it into my day. I just carry my camera with me.
⁓ It’s not that small I have a Nikon Z7 so you know it’s yeah, that’s what you shoot with yeah
Yeah, I
now use, I started with a 50 millimeter lens and now I use a 35 because I find the 35 I can do the kind of street photography I want and portraits so I don’t have to keep switching lenses. You know, in case I come upon something I’m able to get both.
Frederic Paulussen (23:11)
Okay.
That’s true, yeah. I can imagine. And did you ever consider a zoom lens or do you prefer still to have the prime lens?
Amy Horowitz (23:33)
I like the fixed lens.
Frederic Paulussen (23:36)
Yeah, I have the same, yeah, but there’s people who prefer the zoom lens, I was figuring maybe you had a preference as well.
Amy Horowitz (23:44)
I mean,
I have a zoom lens and I use it on certain occasions, like sometimes if I’m traveling or if ⁓ there’s an event like a parade or, you know, protests, sometimes you want a zoom lens so you have the flexibility.
Frederic Paulussen (23:59)
That’s very true, Yeah. And so you, because I haven’t seen them published on your website, so for example, protests, is that something you try to do regularly or is it more once? ⁓
Amy Horowitz (24:10)
I just I’m just interested
in going. I love to go and I photograph what I can. I feel like it’s history. I I stayed here during COVID and that probably got me started because I remember running out of my building and somebody said, there’s a Black Lives Matter protest, like insinuating that I should not go, not go outside, like stay in they’re protesting. I’m like, no, where is it? I’m going like I want to be where the action is. I just like that. You know, I find it all.
Frederic Paulussen (24:30)
yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Amy Horowitz (24:38)
A, it’s important and B, it’s exciting and I feel like it’s part of history.
Frederic Paulussen (24:44)
Yeah, very much so. ⁓ I did my first protest a few weeks ago and for me it was like actually going and actually photographing, ⁓ both were first and it was very interesting. Yeah, for me it was… I was… I’m not gonna say scared, but… ⁓
How do you say? Cautious because I thought like people are not going to be happy with the camera but everyone was so happy to have their photos taken. No, in the end there was a lot of people. I didn’t see many other photographers but on Instagram afterwards I saw a lot of photos of people that I followed. It was like, oh they were there as well. I didn’t see them but of course it was a very big protest as well.
Amy Horowitz (25:12)
But aren’t there more, don’t you find you aren’t the only one with a camera, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah,
I find through Instagram I’ve met so many photographers and now I run into them, you know, all the time, you know, we’re on like first name basis. It’s funny. It’s just a little community. It’s nice.
Frederic Paulussen (25:34)
Yeah. ⁓
Yeah, because I also think you’re part of Women’s Street Photographers. Yeah. Yeah. And that’s based in New York, think, as well, no? So that’s a very nice ⁓ group of… Do you…
Amy Horowitz (25:46)
The women street photographers, yeah.
That is in New York, yeah.
Yeah, that was my first.
I had gotten the book, Gullnara, the founder and creator of Women’s Street Photographers. It promotes the work of women photographers because I guess historically there were, know, men were, yeah. And, yeah, that’s okay. She has annual open calls and things and.
Frederic Paulussen (26:08)
Yeah, yeah. Even for me, I know this with the podcast. So yeah, sorry, I don’t want to interrupt you.
Amy Horowitz (26:21)
So I entered and I had gotten the book prior and like, if I could only get my work in a book like this, it would be amazing. And then I became a finalist in her open call. That’s what kicked off at least some attention for me in my work, which was nice.
Frederic Paulussen (26:39)
Yeah and so it’s more of a community I think like you guys meet every so often or? ⁓
Amy Horowitz (26:45)
Yeah, we meet every now and then, yeah.
But even so, I’ve met so many women through that, that now independently of Women’s Street, you know, we’d get together or have made friends and it’s nice.
Frederic Paulussen (26:53)
Yeah, yeah,
I can imagine. Yeah, I think I’m not sure I interviewed Nina Welch Kling. I think she’s in there as well. No. Okay, wow.
Amy Horowitz (27:00)
Yeah, I know Nina, sure. In fact, she was at PhotoFest with me. We were there
together with another friend of mine, Danielle Goldstein.
Frederic Paulussen (27:09)
Okay, I interviewed her a few months ago, so… okay, yep, because you mentioned women are very underrepresented in the history of street photography. I’m thinking a apart of Vivian Mayer, maybe Diane Arbus, there’s not many names. And if you ask for a man, yeah.
Amy Horowitz (27:12)
Yeah, I listened to that podcast. Yeah.
Yeah, there’s a few, Helen Levitt, Bernice Abbott.
I mean, there was a handful, but I think the men get more of the attention or have in the past.
Frederic Paulussen (27:33)
Exactly.
Exactly. And even for the podcast now I find there’s there are more women but it’s still hard to to find them and grab them for I think they’re more shy is not the right word but more I just call it less it’s like less proud of their work or like more cautious about yeah but anyway
Amy Horowitz (27:59)
No, I’m not sure. You mean tentative?
Like, okay.
Frederic Paulussen (28:03)
Yeah I think so or like I’m looking for words but I can’t find it in Dutch now either so it can’t put it in Google Translate. I have the word yeah I’m quickly like modest.
Amy Horowitz (28:11)
Yeah.
okay.
Frederic Paulussen (28:23)
Yeah, that’s the word I think. more, yeah, they don’t want to brag or they don’t want to showcase their work too much or something. So I find that it’s often ⁓ what’s keeping women back. For men it’s usually just like, don’t speak English very well. Okay, that’s fine. ⁓ But so, yeah, and so did you find the need because you started rolling into that? ⁓
Amy Horowitz (28:39)
Hehe.
Frederic Paulussen (28:53)
portrait photography fairly fast? Did you find the need to do the the candid work to call yourself a street photographer or is it just more something that you you were curious to or… okay.
Amy Horowitz (29:05)
⁓ Now, I felt like a street photographer anyway. any
photo on the street makes you a street photographer, right? ⁓ No, I just, like the candid work too. I like looking at it. I think it’s great. It’s just, photography is challenging and there’s always a challenge to be had if you try something new, right?
Frederic Paulussen (29:11)
True, yeah.
True, Yeah, because just because you mentioned it was like something you did less and…
Amy Horowitz (29:31)
Well, I do
less than the portraits because I think, you you do candid Street Photography, you’re not talking to anybody. You know, I’m sort of an introvert and I spend a lot of time alone, kind of by choice, but I like the bursts of connection. You know, I like meeting the people and it’s just really fun. It makes New York feel smaller when you know people, when you walk around or, you know.
Frederic Paulussen (29:50)
Yeah, I can.
Yeah, true. Yeah, it sounds familiar with the introverts ⁓ and bursts of connection. So that’s something that I recognize for myself. That’s a funny thing, yeah, because a lot of us, we all like to talk about street photography, but we all do it alone. So it’s, we never really get to talk about it that much except the part if… Yeah, exactly. No, exactly.
Amy Horowitz (30:04)
I think a lot of ⁓ street photographers have that or something.
Right, we don’t play a team sport for a reason, because we don’t want to. You we don’t want to.
You want to do it yourself.
Frederic Paulussen (30:23)
But at
the same time we all like going to these communities or these street photography festivals and it’s fun to talk about it but… you went there, yeah okay. Yeah.
Amy Horowitz (30:30)
Yeah, I love the festivals. I just went to one in Dublin and one in London. Yeah, I love them. You know, they have
speakers that are inspiring and they do the photo walk, which is kind of a little bit more social. ⁓ But I found it really fun to go.
Frederic Paulussen (30:47)
Yeah,
I’ve been to the Brussels one last month but the Dublin one I think next year I’ll try to get there as well because it’s, I’ve heard it’s really good. It’s also only the second year they organize it apparently but it’s, yeah, it feels like it’s massive ⁓ street photography festival. ⁓
Amy Horowitz (30:53)
That was a great one, yeah.
They did a great job.
Yeah. And it’s fun because going
to them, you meet a lot of the photographers you know on Instagram. So it’s like, could go anywhere, I can go anywhere in the world and probably say, hey, I’m going to be in blah, blah, blah country and Street photographers want to meet up. mean, that’s kind of what, so many have come here and reached out to me and I’ve had coffee with them or walked around meeting people from other countries. It’s so nice.
Frederic Paulussen (31:11)
Yeah.
Yeah.
And do you enjoy the ⁓ shooting together or because it feels that maybe? Yeah.
Amy Horowitz (31:34)
yeah, no, not really. I find it hard to shoot because
you’re talking to somebody so you’re not as focused. Sometimes you get a shot but it’s not the same as going by yourself.
Frederic Paulussen (31:44)
exactly that’s very true. ⁓ And so you mentioned you go out almost every day, it like how big is your catalogue? It must be huge right?
Amy Horowitz (31:58)
Yeah, it’s big. know, sometimes if I came home with two portraits in a day, that’s a good day. You know, sometimes I could get a lot more. It just all depends. You know. But what were you going to say? Because sometimes, you know, you can’t find somebody you want to shoot. It depends on the time of year. It depends on the weather. You know.
Frederic Paulussen (32:04)
Okay.
Yeah, okay. Because, yeah, yeah, okay, makes sense. No.
That’s
very true, yeah. Yeah, for me, of course, I only do candid stuff and so for me, sometimes I do bursts of like, for example, yesterday I did like, it was a very short while before I went to a movie and it was like 50 photos. I was like, that’s a lot for half an hour. But of course it’s bursts.
Amy Horowitz (32:36)
Yeah.
Frederic Paulussen (32:38)
But of course, if you do portraits, you have to… I think your hunting is a lot different than mine, because for me, just strolling casually and seeing what I come up to, for you it’s really like looking… Yeah. Yeah. I have tried… Not portraits yet. I have done some…
Amy Horowitz (32:50)
So you’re doing more candid photography on the street you’re saying? More candid? Yeah.
Frederic Paulussen (32:59)
kind of like asking someone if it’s okay to photograph their feet because they had like great tattoos that matched with something on the background it’s like okay can i so more of that of course and that’s already like it’s been daunting but same time it’s in the end it’s so easy to just ask
Amy Horowitz (33:04)
Yeah.
It’s harder. find that doing those
candid things, you need a lot of patience. You know, they call it hunting and fishing and some people will pick a spot with nice light and just stay there. You know, I want to be able to do that, but I don’t have a lot of patience as a person, like I know myself. So that’s what I think is one of the challenges for me with street photography is the patience of waiting. You know, I like more immediate gratification.
Frederic Paulussen (33:32)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah,
but then if you go to a park and there’s no one there, do you like sit around to do like a lap and see if someone’s there or?
Amy Horowitz (33:49)
I do a couple, I
do a couple laps I give it a little whirl and if I find there’s no action after a while and nobody around that I want to chat with, then I just go home. You know, I go about my day. But sometimes go back another time a day or…
Frederic Paulussen (33:59)
Yeah. Okay.
Yeah, okay. Yeah, because of course I can imagine like sitting there for an hour could be productive at the same time it is just sitting there watching to the same groups. Yeah. Okay.
Amy Horowitz (34:12)
Now I never really just sit. For the most part I’m always moving. I’ll go down a different
street, you know, I’ll go around or, you know, I’ll search out a little.
Frederic Paulussen (34:19)
Yeah,
because it’s like a big park or is it more like a small block size? It’s been since 2008 so it’s been a while. Okay, yeah.
Amy Horowitz (34:24)
Yeah, it’s not like I don’t know if you’ve been to New York. Have you been to New York?
But it’s not like central park central park is
probably miles long, you know, really big now it’s more of a community park, but it’s a sizable community park. I would say, you know, I can’t don’t even know space. I can’t describe how big it is.
Frederic Paulussen (34:36)
Yeah.
Okay, okay.
No, yeah, okay, just
but it was just to imagine because to me it like obviously it wasn’t going to be a central park but like how big is a park for for an average New York place but it’s like more or less one block.
Amy Horowitz (34:57)
Yeah, I could probably stroll through
the whole park in 15 minutes, walk down every area of the park, you know, quickly.
Frederic Paulussen (35:03)
Okay, yeah. Yeah, okay.
That gives me an idea, yeah. And so, did you find, because you switched from the 50 to the 35 millimeter for your portrait, did you find that challenging in a way? Like, because it’s… Yeah.
Amy Horowitz (35:22)
One
of the reasons that happened was I did a workshop in Rome last September with Julia Coddington and I didn’t know what lens to bring. know, the candid was kind of new for me and she said she wanted us to bring a fixed lens. I think she said 28 millimeter and for some reason when I went to the camera store they didn’t have one that fit my camera or something so…
Frederic Paulussen (35:45)
really? I
have the one for the Nikon Z7, it’s not that expensive even,
Amy Horowitz (35:49)
Oh, I don’t know, maybe I
got the salesperson who didn’t know, but they wound up telling me that they didn’t have that and I should get the, I think it was like a 26. I don’t know, but I had to stand real close to get the pictures to people, right? So I’m in Rome and I was just so brazen. I was like just so close to people and just shooting away. And then the teacher loved it. And she kept the person, the photographer who ran the workshop and she said, no, you should keep using this lens. This is great.
Frederic Paulussen (35:53)
Okay.
Okay, yeah. Yeah.
Amy Horowitz (36:18)
And then I came home and I didn’t want to keep switching lenses. So that’s when I went to the 35.
Frederic Paulussen (36:25)
Okay, okay. So you because you were switching between the 26 and the 50 you settled on the 35. Yeah, okay. Makes sense. Yeah. And so you mentioned the the the the Rome Workshop and I mean in a way it’s it’s I can see how it’s easier for you to approach people up close even with a 26 millimeters lens which is very very close.
Amy Horowitz (36:31)
Yeah.
Well that was more like a lot of, I did
some portraits but mostly Candid Street photography there.
Frederic Paulussen (36:51)
Yeah,
and so because for a lot of people it’s a very big barrier to get so close to people. For you it wasn’t that much of an issue.
Amy Horowitz (36:58)
Well, we did, the
workshop we went, like we went several days to the area near the colosseum. There’s a train station near the colosseum There’s a lot of people. And we went to like the, what’s it called? The Parthenon? Or another touristy place. And then we went to the Trevi Fountain where there’s so many people. You know, so many people, like they don’t really, you and everybody’s taking pictures because it’s a touristy, so sometimes people don’t notice.
Frederic Paulussen (37:13)
Yeah.
So many people here.
Mm.
Amy Horowitz (37:25)
So you have to be a little stealthy and be kind of like cool about it and then just like think about, know, see what you want to shoot and get close and just do it, you know.
Frederic Paulussen (37:26)
That’s very true.
Yeah, yeah, makes sense. Yeah, if you mentioned those spots like Trevi Fountains, I was here one year ago as well. it’s like if you go, it’s packed. Yeah, we went at like seven o’clock in the morning. So the friend I went with, couldn’t sleep in the morning. So he went and he woke me up by slamming the door of the hotel fairly hard. So I woke up to follow him and like at 730, there’s like 20 people and that’s fine.
Amy Horowitz (37:42)
It’s packed.
Frederic Paulussen (38:01)
But then, yeah, half an hour later you just see it gets so packed, exactly. So I can imagine. True, yeah. Yeah, I was there with a friend so I wasn’t really doing much street photography but I can imagine now. I did see a lot of places like I should come back here, I should come back here. And so do you find that it’s different for you to do it in Rome than New York or?
Amy Horowitz (38:05)
But when it was so packed is the time you can get those candids because people don’t really realize. And close.
I don’t know, I’m just as brazen here, but for some reason I just felt, I don’t know, they don’t know. I don’t know, it was like a weird kind of feeling I had in my head, like, okay, I’m in a country I don’t know, you know, I got yelled at a couple times, you know, it happens, but I’m safe, but you know, I’m okay. I’m still here.
Frederic Paulussen (38:35)
Yeah.
Yeah, I can’t.
Because for me, now that you mentioned it in a workshop, for me for example in a workshop in a group I’m much more brazen as well. I find it gives like confidence to approach people more easily I find.
Amy Horowitz (38:56)
Maybe because
Julia gave lectures in the morning, which are very inspiring, you know, and she gives tips and whatever. So I think you have that in your head right before you go out and shoot that, you know, you know what you’re looking for, you know how you want to get it. you know, I think having that lesson right before helps.
Frederic Paulussen (39:04)
Mm.
Yeah, and I can imagine.
Yeah, very much. Yeah, that’s what I like about workshops as well, because they at first it’s a bit of information and then it’s also the practical side and they are there as well to guide you through it. was it like a big group or?
Amy Horowitz (39:31)
No,
like six, eight people. It’s small. But you know, sometimes you could venture off on your own if you wanted to. I stick close to the instructor because I want to keep learning. What am I going to learn on my own? I’d rather be with them if I’m signed up.
Frederic Paulussen (39:35)
Okay, yeah, that’s fine, yeah.
Yeah.
Very true, yeah, that’s cool. And have you done a lot of workshops or was it the first?
Amy Horowitz (39:54)
⁓
What did I do? I did… I’d say that was the biggest one. I’m going to Istanbul with Julia also in September. ⁓ So yeah. I haven’t done a ton. No. I might do one with Rammy Narula in November. I like them. Like I said earlier, you can’t stop learning.
Frederic Paulussen (40:02)
cool, yeah.
That’s a…
Yeah, that’s a very exciting city Istanbul.
No, true and I think even like someone mentioned it recently like if you even if you find your style it’s it was Darren Sacks I think even if you find your style it’s you there’s always something that can still keep evolve I can keep evolving and
Amy Horowitz (40:33)
Yeah, mean, like I said,
you now any expression is okay. I start out with don’t smile. And I also found switching to the 35, for some reason I’m getting closer now. I used to do, I used to vary my shots and do full body and do people sitting and do people close up. Now I’m doing a lot more close ups. Unless something they’re wearing is so compelling that I want to show the whole thing. I’m trying to get much closer in my portraits now too.
Frederic Paulussen (40:38)
Yeah.
Mm.
Okay.
And that’s because of the lens you think?
Amy Horowitz (41:02)
I think so, I don’t
know, it just started to happen and I think it was around the time I switched lenses.
Frederic Paulussen (41:08)
I mean, it’s quite possible because for me often as well, like if you put on a new lens, it kind of makes you think differently as well. So that’s why I prefer fixed lens as well because you can get into the right mindset. I zoom, I am able to zoom, I get too many options. Yeah, there’s too many options. So I won’t do as great.
Amy Horowitz (41:24)
You’re a little all over the place. Yeah.
And I find that, you know, when I’m shooting in a busy place like the park, you know, there’s always somebody behind the person you’re shooting. You know, it’s hard to get the right background. know, you can kind of move a person, maybe it all depends on what they’re doing and if they want to move to a different spot where there’s nobody behind them. But very often you can’t. And you don’t want to have that person in the background that kind of looks like they’re on the person’s shoulder.
Frederic Paulussen (41:40)
Yeah.
Amy Horowitz (41:53)
you know, that you’re shooting. sometimes going closer of what makes is I’m able to avoid that, you know, the distraction background too.
Frederic Paulussen (41:54)
Yeah.
Okay. Yeah,
that’s cool. Yeah, for me, it’s I do all my portraits, but of course, that’s corporate portraits with an 85 millimeter. So for me, it’s very interesting to hear you do it with a 35 millimeter now. Because usually that’s more of a and also because of the close up because usually the 35 for me is more like a full body portrait in a specific setting. So it’s
Amy Horowitz (42:28)
I’m not that
technical, I just kind of go with my gut, you know what I mean? I don’t want to carry a big heavy lens around every day, you know, also.
Frederic Paulussen (42:31)
No, but I-
But I
don’t see anything wrong with it. But for me, it’s just interesting that it’s what you do, it’s with a 35 millimeters because I wouldn’t do it that way. But obviously it works. Yeah. And I mean, there’s a book. So who am I to judge? ⁓ But I think that’s really cool. ⁓ And so we have like this because I see a lot of like ⁓ more
Amy Horowitz (42:45)
It works.
Yeah.
Frederic Paulussen (43:04)
Yeah, warm clothing is wrong of course, but there’s no like big winter jackets. it… like the people, the subjects, the people you photograph are… Okay, because it’s…
Amy Horowitz (43:09)
What do mean?
I all year round. The only
time anybody ever asked me, ⁓ one person asked me to meet them to shoot them. You know, like, can we set up a photo shoot? And I met them in the park. It was the coldest day of the year. And I usually wear fingerless gloves so that I can shoot, you know? And I was so cold, I couldn’t even feel my fingers after about 45 minutes, and they would have gone all day.
Frederic Paulussen (43:35)
Yeah.
Amy Horowitz (43:42)
And I’m like, I’m sorry, I have to stop. I just can’t. I can’t even press it anymore. But yeah, I shoot in all kinds of weather. I don’t like rain.
Frederic Paulussen (43:42)
Wow.
Yeah. ⁓
Okay,
no that makes sense, yeah. Yeah, ⁓ I’m in between, like it’s a duel, enjoyed for some occasions, but yeah, usually not too much. ⁓
Amy Horowitz (43:51)
Some people do, I don’t like rain.
Right, so you think most of them are not winter photos? Is that what you’re trying to say?
Frederic Paulussen (44:09)
Yeah, they
feel more like spring, summer, maybe a bit of autumn, but like early autumn. Because everyone, well on your website of course, feels…
Amy Horowitz (44:19)
The website, yeah, because
I think the website I chose a lot. It’s a lot of my earlier work on the website. I have to really update the photos, but ⁓ yeah, right after COVID was an interesting time where the early photos came out. There was a lot of color, like, you know, the hair, the clothes, like it was just a burst. You know, now you find it and I do find it, but almost not as much. It’s a little different. There was some sort of energy happening. You know, also people like
Frederic Paulussen (44:25)
Okay Okay
Okay.
Amy Horowitz (44:49)
COVID people didn’t know what to do with themselves. They would sit down and dye their hair. They would do funny things. But then I think when everybody came out, it was like such a celebration that people were out again, that big color burst happened. And I think at the time it was maybe spring. So maybe some of those photos were spring, summer, fall. On the website, maybe that’s why.
Frederic Paulussen (44:53)
Yeah.
Yeah. ⁓
Okay, I make sense then.
And so out of all the portraits you made over the five years, how hard was it to select that? I’m not sure how many do you had like and how many so you went to the 160 but ⁓ how many did you start with?
Amy Horowitz (45:17)
You
Very hard. Very hard because, you know.
Well.
Well, I
I have probably, I don’t know, over 2,000 or something, you know, more than that, but, you know, trying to narrow it down, it’s hard, you know. When you find something you do and you like it, you know, you like them all, right? So it’s hard to choose.
Frederic Paulussen (45:31)
Wow.
Yeah.
So did just like do-vin try to wrestle through it or did you ask people to help you?
Amy Horowitz (45:48)
Yeah, ⁓
I kind of, you I have my mentor that I took classes with, we’ll kind of review it, but I kind of, you you kind of know. And ⁓ I also want, you know, I like to have a lot of diversity in the ⁓ photos. I don’t want them to be all one race or all one whatever. you know, it’s really the whole, I wanted to reflect New York and life, you know. And, you know, I,
Frederic Paulussen (46:05)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah, okay.
Because it’s for me, for example, sometimes I have like a photo that I really love and I show it to people and they’re like, and then sometimes you have the reverse shirt, you’ll have like a, so I was, So it’s very hard to choose. Yeah. Yeah. That is the right answer. Yeah. And so how long did that process take you to choose the photos for the book? Did you?
Amy Horowitz (46:27)
That happens, it happens. It’s very hard to choose. So that is the right answer, It’s hard to choose, for sure.
well, I chose them and then, you know, you go back and you look at it. It’s hard to say. It took several months, you know, it took a while to go back because you look at it and then you have to think, you know, you got to go back with a fresh eye again. And then you’ll and then you have taken more pictures. You’re like, no, let me put this one in. You know, you could you could do it all day long. You could do it forever. You know, you kind of figure trying to figure it out. You have some point you have to say stop.
Frederic Paulussen (46:51)
Yeah, look here.
Yeah, I can imagine.
you, were you able to say, tell yourself stop or is it a deadline because of the publishing that kind of helped you? Yeah, okay. So setting deadlines really, really helps with this. Yeah, I can imagine that. And so, well, the book will be…
Amy Horowitz (47:18)
Probably a deadline. Deadline, deadlines help, yeah. Yeah.
Frederic Paulussen (47:30)
Well, for us it will be out fairly soon, for the listener it will be out already, almost. So
So it’s gonna be like a real like hard cover book. Will it be something to go through like a coffee table book or will it be like a…
Amy Horowitz (47:47)
It’s not a coffee table. I’ll give you
a sneak peek. It’s not a coffee table book. So here inside, on the inside flap here, the words of the kids and on the back flap too. And then, you know, in the very beginning are my words, wherever they were, couple. And then, you know, all of the portraits within.
Frederic Paulussen (47:56)
yeah, all the words.
That’s cool.
Introduction, yeah.
Okay that’s cool yeah that’s nice yeah okay it’s a big book
Amy Horowitz (48:16)
So that’s it.
Yeah,
yeah, pretty thick.
Frederic Paulussen (48:24)
So you have your copy already, so I can imagine that it’s very exciting to get that. Yeah.
Amy Horowitz (48:28)
It’s super exciting. I’ve always
wanted to publish a book.
Frederic Paulussen (48:32)
Yeah, so is there going to be a part two you think? Because you kept shooting after the selection? Yeah, you won’t stop the ⁓ current project. Because for some people it’s like you finished it, it’s done. Yeah.
Amy Horowitz (48:39)
I would love there to be, sure.
No, not yet, not yet. I still enjoy it, so not yet. I’m not
sure if I’m going to key in on another sort of project yet or not, know, switch it up yet. I don’t know, I’m still playing. I like what I’m doing, so I don’t know why I need to stop.
Frederic Paulussen (48:57)
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly. No, but for some people it’s like, I’ve done this project, it’s stopped and then they go to something.
Amy Horowitz (49:08)
A lot of people are like that. When I say how long I’ve been doing
it, people are like, wait, what? You know, they’ve already done 10 projects in that time. You know, that’s what happens.
Frederic Paulussen (49:13)
Yeah.
Yeah,
I think it’s a very cool project. Yeah. So I think we will be wrapping it up there. ⁓ I’ve asked all my questions. think there’s, yeah. I mean, for me, I’m curious to see ⁓ your Istanbul adventures now, because I feel it’s gonna be totally different maybe than the work we already know from you, exactly like the few photos I saw of Rome.
Amy Horowitz (49:36)
yeah.
Yeah.
Frederic Paulussen (49:45)
I saw some on your website as well. There was one with the Colloseum in the background.
Amy Horowitz (49:48)
Yeah, some of my best
street photos were from Rome. ⁓ Have you been to Istanbul? I’ve been dying to go.
Frederic Paulussen (49:52)
and
not yet no it’s on my to-do list now yeah because a lot of street photographers go there
Amy Horowitz (50:01)
I’ve
seen photos, they say the light is great there and the people are nice.
Frederic Paulussen (50:04)
Yeah,
I think it’s similar to Rome but then it also with a different culture as well. So it’s kind of like similar light to Rome but then with like a more, well the Italians are already warm but with a more welcoming ⁓ culture. That’s how I see it at least, I’m not sure if that’s correct. So I’m very curious to it. Do you do, have you done portraits in Rome as well or?
Amy Horowitz (50:22)
Yeah. Yeah.
It’s
funny, I’ve done portraits in other countries when I travel with my family or whatever and you know when you don’t speak the language I’m trying to everybody wants to smile. You know everybody wants to smile they all want to do this or whatever and I’m like I do that I take it just to make them happy and then I said okay I go like this don’t like don’t smile you know it’s hard to communicate you know to get it but I take portraits in other countries.
Frederic Paulussen (50:37)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And do they end up in the book as well or is that really focused on New York? Yeah, okay.
Amy Horowitz (51:01)
No, no, but
you know, I should put them on Instagram. I created an Instagram account, Don’t Smile Abroad, but I never put any photos on it yet. Somebody said, don’t make more than one account. You you split up your viewers that way. It’s better to have it all in one. So maybe for a few weeks, I’ll post like international portraits or something.
Frederic Paulussen (51:06)
Okay.
Yeah, and if you go abroad, is it the same kind of people you’re attracted to as for the book or is it like the young people?
Amy Horowitz (51:32)
⁓
Yes and no. Sometimes there are other, you know, even older people that I want to shoot when I’m in another country. It’s just, whoever you come upon, I suppose. Yeah.
Frederic Paulussen (51:40)
Okay.
Yeah.
Do you do it in actually New York as well?
Amy Horowitz (51:46)
Not many. Sometimes I started to shoot older people. Like I find here, you know how some of the portraits I have the kids have like orange hair or purple hair. Here sometimes there are adults like that have that so I’ve taken some of those. You know if I find them and they look a little more interesting, you know I’ll take their portrait.
Frederic Paulussen (51:50)
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, okay. I just, because we talked about it in abroad countries. So I was just wondering if you did that in New York as well, but okay, that’s cool. So, well, I already mentioned we were going to wrap it up. So let’s do that now. So thank you, Amy, for being on the podcast. It was really, really interesting. Thank you for sharing your time and insights. Of course, if anyone wants to follow Amy, I will put links in the description.
Amy Horowitz (52:21)
Heh.
Thank you.
Frederic Paulussen (52:35)
links to her website, to her Instagram and to her book of course. So make sure to follow her fantastic work to follow her to go and buy a book of course. Yeah, and then yeah, by the time this podcast will be out, it’s maybe the end of the pre-order, maybe the start of the normal sale. Yeah, so make sure to follow the podcast as well for well.
Amy Horowitz (52:43)
Yeah, it’s available for pre-order now. That’s what they say. All right, yeah, it’ll be in local bookstores too.
Right, in September.
Frederic Paulussen (53:02)
really matter which platform if you listen to it on Spotify or YouTube. Follow me for updates about new episodes. All those links will be in the show notes as well or in the description. And thank you Amy again and see you in the next episode.
Amy Horowitz (53:14)
thank you. It was
so nice to meet you. Thank you very much for having me.