Rick Piel

I love looking at the world, especially cities, the way each neighborhood has its own look and feel. I can’t paint, I’m a lousy poet. Photography is the perfect way to express my love. I’ve been documenting the streets of Washington, D.C. and New York City neighborhoods for the last two decades. I am not a revolutionary. I am firmly comfortable in the motifs and tropes of those who came before me, all the way back to Henri Lartigue and Walker Evans. I studied under a great local DC photographer, Frank DiPerna, who had his first solo show at the Corcoran in 1974 and who gave me a signed copy of Lee Friedlander’s book, Self Portraits. Friedlander became my primary influence (along with Garry Winogrand and his book 1964), but DiPerna and I both turned to color like William Eggleston, Stephen Shore, Joel Meyerowitz and others. I enjoy B&W but love color. It’s the world I live in.