03-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Paul McDonough, Whose Photographs Evoked Street Life, Dies at 84
Paul McDonough, whose evocative candid photographs, often of crowds, captured what he called the galvanizing energy of turned-on New Yorkers and the tired West Coast venues where urbanites had fled to tune out, died on March 25 in Brooklyn. He was 84.
His wife, the author Yona Zeldis McDonough, said he died in a nursing home from complications of Alzheimer's disease.
Armed with a 35-millimeter Leica or a Siciliano — one of 55 cameras custom-built by his fellow Brooklyn photographer Thomas Roma, who was head of the department of photography at Columbia University's School of the Arts — Mr. McDonough captured impromptu groups in which individual facial expressions projected multiple impressions; stark romantic images, like a couple kissing in Central Park or youngsters at play; and statues, which he whimsically juxtaposed with human look-alikes. 'Couple and Pilgrim Statue,' 1973. Credit... Paul McDonough, via Sasha Wolf Projects 'Central Park, Couple With Baby in Newspaper,' 1973. Credit... Paul McDonough, via Sasha Wolf Projects 'Central Park Pond, Kids in Tree,' 1973. Credit... Paul McDonough, via Sasha Wolf Projects
Mr. McDonough's works were acquired by the Museum of Modern Art, the New York Public Library and the deCordova Museum in Lincoln, Mass.; shown at the Sasha Wolf Gallery in Manhattan; and collected in several books, including 'New York Photographs: 1968-1978' (2010), 'Sight Seeing' (2014) and 'Headed West' (2021).
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