In the summer of 1988, I moved to New York City to begin my college education at the School of Visual Arts. My education included a healthy dose of photography's history, and fell in love with the street photographers who had mastered the art of candid photography. All the masters from the Magnum agency were my idols. Soon I was walking the streets of Manhattan with my camera strap wrapped around my wrist, my focus on my 50mm or 28mm lens set for 10 feet, and Tri-X film in my Nikon F3.

I began making pictures that I felt were the ultimate realization of photography's power to record the river of life that flowed all around me. Although I loved to shoot on the street, I still had to confront my fear an unpleasant response to my "taking" someone's photo without their permission. But as they said in my critique classes at SVA, "It's not the heat, it's the timidity." I had to shoot these pictures. These moments are what I thought was timeless and precious, moments of grace and humor, plucked from the raging river. Trips to Europe and around the US added to my portfolio. Although I aspired to be a Photojournalist, I remained a Street Photographer, a patient watcher of humanity.

When I first met Dirck Halstead, at the Eddie Adams Workshop in 1990, I showed him my portfolio of photographs, which are included in this presentation. His first response to my work was so positive, I'll never forget he literally carried my portfolio around with him and introduced me to his other Big Shot photo pals, saying that I was his friend and they should see my work. Thus I made friends with Peter Howe, Bill Pierce, David Alan Harvey and many others who are still important in my life, but none have made a bigger contribution to my life than Dirck Halstead.

After producing The Digital Journalist with Dirck for the past five years (58 monthly issues, 4000 web pages, 80+ photo galleries and hundreds of multimedia clips), I present to you my final photo gallery. This portfolio is where it all began for me and Dirck, and 12 years later, this is where we part ways as partners but remain great friends.

Thanks for everything,

David Snider
rave@his.com