New York Times photography

It’s obvious from many a feature story that the New York Times is home to a lot of frustrated novelists. But the photographs in the Times, especially since the advent of color in 1997, also show more artistic talent than most daily papers can demonstrate. One photo from the pre-color days made a haunting impact on me at the time, and I recently looked it up again. The photo shows Jimmy Carter on a blasted lot in the South Bronx. He is stepping out confidently enough, with an inquisitive expression on his face, but there is something sinister in the long dark shadows that he and his entourage cast, and the man at the left is twisting around as if checking for snipers in the windows of the gutted buildings.