Sidewalk Grocer, Bleecker Street, New York

about 1925–1930

Medium

Platinum print

Dimensions

20.1 × 15.3 cm

Status

In Museum Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-736719

This grocer in New York's Greenwich Village most likely became Doris Ulmann's subject through an introduction by John Jacob (“Jack”) Niles (1892-1980), her assistant. She did not habitually photograph people on the street, either in New York or in the Southern communities she visited, so this image, part of a rare series of vegetable sellers and other sidewalk vendors, may have been done at Niles's suggestion. Each of at least ten New York merchants represented in the albums at the University of Oregon struck several poses for Ulmann, usually looking away from the camera. This man appears to have been the most comfortable, perhaps because he was better acquainted with Niles. In fact, he may have been a subject for Niles, a musician, as well as for Ulmann, the photographer. Niles, at one point an aspiring opera singer, was at the time composing a musical drama called *The King of Little Italy*. Adapted from Judith Keller. *Doris Ulmann*, In Focus: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1996), 42. ©1996, J. Paul Getty Trust.