Perfect Strangers: New York City Street Photograph

Over the last seven years, Melissa O’Shaughnessy has photographed daily on the streets of New York.
As one of a growing number of women street photographers contributing to this dynamic genre, O’Shaughnessy enters the territory with clarity and a distinctly humanist eye, offering a refreshing addition to the tradition of street photography. Through her curious and quirky vision, we witness the play of human activity on the glittering sidewalks of the city. Woven into her cast of characters are the lonely, the soulful, and the proud. She has fallen for them all—perfect strangers.

Photographs by Melissa O’Shaughnessy. Introduction by Joel Meyerowitz.Melissa O’Shaughnessy (born in Minneapolis, 1960) is a New York–based photographer. Her work is included in Colin Westerbeck and Joel Meyerowitz’s Bystander: A History of Street Photography (2017 edition) and has been featured in numerous exhibitions around the world. She is a member of UP Photographers. This is her first monograph.
Joel Meyerowitz is an award-winning photographer whose work has appeared in over 350 exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world. He has published over thirty books, including Aperture titles Legacy (2009), Cape Light (2015), Seeing Things (2016), and Provincetown(2019).