Michael Schenker

Strangers in the Park is a series of 4x5 black and white portraits of total strangers, predominantly taken in Washington Square Park. I started the project in the summer of 2024 and it is ongoing. The work has been exhibited at Soho Photo Gallery in NYC in February 2025 and February 2026.

I am using my Wista field camera with a 90mm and 210mm lens, which I bought in 1985 and have hardly used since the early 1990’s. The project has been a wonderful revelation for me… Not only rediscovering the simplistic beauty of large-format portraiture, but also providing me the opportunity to meet and get to know all kinds of people that I would normally never encounter.

And the images themselves have been at times surprising and even magical, as I look at my subject almost as a spectator and wait for the decisive moment to press the shutter, not quite sure exactly what I’ll be getting.

I intend to continue this project in other locations around the world, very likely turning these images into my next book.

Website www.schenkerfoto.com