“Street types” shot by a pioneering photographer

Born into a well-to-do Staten Island family in 1866, Alice Austen found her life’s passion after her sea captain uncle brought back a camera from his travels.

[Street Musicians, 1896]

At 10 years old, she began taking photos, and by 18 was carrying around a heavy trunk filled with equipment, chronicling social events, family gatherings, and parties.

By the 1890s she was bringing her camera to Manhattan, where she “photographed the newly arriving immigrants and older residents as they went about their business,” states the website for Staten Island’s Alice Austen House, which preserves her home and legacy.

[Bike Messenger, 1892]

“Alice always photographed the people and places of her world as they actually appeared, giving us a beautiful visual window on 19th century America.”

She collected many of these photos in “Street Types of New York City,” an 1896 portfolio of images of peddlers, salesman, and other workers as she encountered them on city streets. She continued taking photos through her life; over 3,500 survive.

[Hester Street Egg Stand Group, 1896]

Austen’s comfortable life imploded after the stock market crash of 1929. For the remaining decades of her life, she and her companion, Gertrude Tate, lived in poverty.

Just before her death in 1952, her work finally received notoriety, and in the decades since, her standing as a pioneering female photographer of the beautiful and rich as well as the poor and struggling has continued to grow.

[Suspender Salesman; 1896]

The Alice Austen House recently ended an exhibit of her street photography. But the house continues to promote her reputation as an artist and early female photographer.

[All photos copyright Alice Austen House]

Tags: 19th century New York photos, Alice Austen House, Alice Austen photographer, Alice Austen Staten Island, New York street photographers, Organ Grinder photo New York, Selling Eggs Hester Street, Street Types Alice Austen