Steven Siegel

Biography

For many years Steven Siegel has been photographing and filming New York City’s streets, neighborhoods and people. His photography has been featured in The New York Times, Bloomberg News, The Daily Mail, Business Insider, Gothamist, New York Magazine and Fotografia Magazine. As a consequence of this media coverage, his photo postings on Flickr have received over 30 million visits. The New York Times has called Siegel’s 1980s photo work “a vividly disorienting version of another time and place.” The journal Business Insider noted, “Normally, a picture is worth a thousand words. But some photos speak volumes about their subjects. The work of Steven Siegel recently caught our eye and we are happy to bring you 24 beautiful photographs taken of New York in the 1980s.” New York Public Radio's publication, Gothamist, offered this praise of Siegel’s work: “We've spent the past few weeks looking back through Steven Siegel's photo archive, which beautifully retells the city's story over the past three decades… from utter destruction to Disneyfication.” One of Siegel's images appeared as the album cover photo for Vampire Weekend's 2024 album, "Only God Was Above Us." Siegel's video, “New York Then and Now” (2021), was shown at the Short Film Corner of the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and in film festivals in Berlin, Los Angeles, Miami, Munich and San Francisco. Siegel's film, "Dream City," was shown at the Film Society of Lincoln Center (2024), the Museum of Modern Art (2022), the Atlanta Film Festival, the Berlin Film Festival and the Houston Film Festival. Siegel's film, "Ellis Island" (co-directed with Phil Buehler) appeared in the New York Times Op-Docs video feature and on the front page of the New York Times on June 1, 2024. The film was the subject of a 2024 PBS short documentary, "Return to Ellis Island." The film also has been shown at the Cannes Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival. In 2021, Siegel completed an experimental film, entitled "New York Then and Now." The film was exhibited in the Short Film Corner of the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and in film festivals in Berlin, Los Angeles, Miami, Munich and San Francisco.