Street photography is often described as a practice of patience and instinct. How do you balance those two? Do you go out with a specific intention, or let the environment lead you?

My photography tends to come from instinct a lot more than patience. I don’t usually stand in one place waiting for photos to come to me. I like to walk around when I’m in the city; I can’t stand the idea of moving around without a destination in mind. Sometimes I’ll listen to music as I’m walking, but I’m always observing my surroundings looking for anything that I might want to see as a photograph.

Most of the time I don’t go out looking for anything specific. However, I tend to gravitate to the same locations over and over, and when I do it can be easy to keep taking the same photo over and over. Sometimes I’ll do that until I get one that hits closest to the feeling I want to express, and then I try to force myself to find something different.

What's a moment or image that got away that still stays with you?

There’s too many to count! Honestly, I take so many photos when I go out that I tend to forget the images that get away from me. More often than not, it’s when I shoot with film that this happens, since I try to be a lot more intentional with the finite amount of exposures I have. The advantage to shooting primarily with digital is it allows for more experimentation and is more forgiving of mistakes.

Your work lives in real time, in public space. How do you think about the relationship between you and the people you photograph?

I like the idea of capturing a whole range of human moments, from the common and banal to the unique and absurd. It can be easy to feel like I’m invisible when I’m out shooting, or that I’m disconnected to what’s going on in front of me. That can be true whether I’m in a place I’ve never visited before or walking down a street in New York I’ve walked a thousand times before. But I don’t want to forget that the photographer is also participating in whatever scene they’re capturing. Occasionally I’ve made street photos where my reflection or shadow is visible, and these can be among my favorites because it offers proof that they were living the scene they saw, not just recording it.

Share 5–8 images that feel most like you right now. Not necessarily your most recent work, just the ones you'd show someone who'd never seen your photography before. Walk us through the photos and why you chose them.

Sometimes I think the best street photos are at night. People seem to be the most fascinating to me then, for some reason. In the first photo, I was at a bar when I observed this woman with her phone and a joint in her hands. I was able to isolate her in the frame just as she turned to someone off-frame. In the second photo, I saw this couple having a quiet moment as the darkness of the evening surrounded them.

I recently learned that the feeling of realizing people around you have led full lives has a word: sonder. When I see a compelling person like the ones in these photos, I like to think I’m causing those who see my photos to experience sonder when they contemplate what these people were doing in these moments.

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Museums are among my favorite places to shoot for a few reasons. The architecture is often very compelling and usually have many open spaces. People also seem to be somewhat unguarded there. This was taken at the iconic staircase at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I’ve been fascinated by people going up and down the staircase and have wanted to get a compelling long exposure there for some time. This couple pausing for a moment on the landing provided the perfect opportunity.

And this was in the new wing of the New Museum, which reopened earlier this year. The woman sitting by herself may not be that unique, but I love the white and metallic environment of the hallway, and the fact that I got myself as a blurry reflection is an added bonus. As I said before, I love street photos where the photographer appears somehow.

I also love abstract and surreal photography. One reason why I mostly take color images is that the colors can be affected to the point that they become the subjects rather than whatever tangible object was in front of the lens. In the first photo, I saw these oil tankers off the Long Island coast on a plane departing JFK Airport. I was fascinated by how they were surrounded by the endless expanse of water. The second photo was a flower on Park Avenue. I recently found an old macro attachment that fit one of my RF mount lenses; I love how it turns this tulip into inky areas of white, green, and red.

Member Spotlight: Michael Trimboli