Did a meteor hit downtown New York City? Best photo by jeff mermelstein | Art and design

I This photo, Man with Windex, was taken in New York City in 1996. I was, and still am, obsessed with taking photographs on the streets of New York. At the time, I was using a Leica Rangefinder with color negative film because of its moldability and ease of use. One of the nice things about the Leica is its stealth characteristics – it’s quiet and compact, although for me now the iPhone is my camera.

The son of a Holocaust survivor, I grew up in a suburb in central New Jersey, and moved to New York in 1979 when I was in my early 20s—which was like landing on Mars. This photo is part of my series and book, “Pavement,” which I wrote between 1987 and 1999. I walked the streets of Manhattan every day, ready for surprises. On the street you need calm vigilance. The images that remain the strongest for me carry a sense of mystery, perhaps that very rare kind of mystery, that would give me a feeling of euphoria.

My walks that day took me near 50th Street and Sixth Avenue, a part of downtown brimming with potential. There was a man in a suit and tie, holding a cigarette in one hand and holding a Windex spray bottle in the other. It was only when I saw the actual negative on a light box with a magnifying glass that I felt an immediate jolt, a jolt of amazement. There were the ingredients I was hoping for: mystery and mystery. His tense grip on the Windex bottle, the poker facial expression, the assumption that he might be a janitor even though he’s wearing a suit. He also doesn’t seem to know me. There are wilted daffodils, a rock that may have been a meteorite that struck the flowerbed.

Now, 30 years later, when I look at it I see the manhole cover for the first time; Maybe it will all go down in the end. This photo has that precious, unforgettable quality that has survived and still makes me think. This is a gift.

Memorability is key – this photo was taken a long time ago but it sticks around, which is rare when you take photos at the rate I do, and I’ve been doing this for a long time. This is part of the job as a street photographer. But you also need to have the frame of mind to leave your house first, which is a big step as you get older. There has to be something in the real world – but what interests me are the counter-moments. Then I cover it with a bow, with texture and color. The use of color is important – I’m not saying color is harder, but I think different from black and white, it’s an extra ball to play with. My personal interest in color comes from my interest in realism, and it’s not so much about color manipulation – although the color interactions in this image are good.

Sidewalk was the result of winning the European Photography Publishers Award in 1999. It was a wonderful and exhilarating award to win. I’m very excited about my new book, What If Jeff Were a Butterfly, which includes a wealth of thematic material, a wild mix of almost random images, put together in poetic and surprising ways, that messes with my head in a good way.

In recent years, I have been making a lot of videos. I don’t walk around with a specific idea in mind, but I want to contribute in some way to portraying the human condition at any moment in time – that’s the challenge. I think it’s a huge honor to find something I love, and I’m still as obsessed with photography now as I was 50 years ago.