‘There’s so much misery and unfairness in the world, but the people I’m attracted to photographing are those who project confidence and joy. And this guy was marvellous’
T
his photograph is named Man in a Three-piece Suit Dancing Within the Circle at a Wedding, Rockville Centre, NY, March 1976. The bride was Elaine Sherman, mother of my friend Rhonda, who I’d known since seventh grade. Mrs Sherman was getting married for the second time and the dancing man was the husband’s son-in-law, though I don’t remember his name or what he was dancing to.
As the title says, it’s a circle dance, where people get into the middle and do their thing. And this guy sure did – he was marvellous. I saw him and just grabbed my camera – boom! I was using a pretty wide-angle lens and a head-on flash: I like to have people all lit up, like stage lighting. All the way to the left of the picture is a woman with just part of her face showing – that’s my mom, Sunny, who was friendly with Elaine. I wonder now how I came to be looking down at the guy, because I’m only 5ft 1in. Was I standing on a stool or a chair? I doubt I’d have done that. I must have been holding the camera at some elevation.
Usually I ask permission to take a picture, but people knew I was photographing. And Elaine was aware that I’d grown up taking pictures of my Jewish family and friends in Long Island, and was working on a series focusing on that community. I included this picture when I successfully applied for an artist grant to become a photographer documenting Jewish New York – which I did between 1978 and 1979.
