Roy Colmer – New York City 1984-1986
Title: New York City 1984-1986
Author: Roy Colmer
Self-published in 1987 with the assistance of Blue Sky Gallery
Softcover, 4to, pp. 24
Roy Colmer (1935-2014) was born in London and studied art at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg, Germany. In 1966, he moved to New York where he worked as a painter and a filmmaker. It was not until the early 70’s that Colmer picked up a camera to begin his major project, Doors NYC (accessible today at the NYPL).
In 1982, he studied photography with Lisette Model at the New School, where he later taught a course entitled “Intuitive and Conceptual Approaches to Photography.” After his experience at the New School, Colmer embarked into more social and street photography, a departure from his previous urban archival work of the NYC doors.
A few years later, while working as a graphic designer, Colmer developed a street photography project, portraying the social diversity in New York City. Today these images are a valuable record of the social landscape of that time. Ultimately, Colmer’s project took the form of this self-published photobook, while many of the original images are today part of the MOMA collection.
New York Photobooks 