‘I hope this photo makes others smile,” photographer Erik S Lieber says. “Where is a man in the middle of New York City going with a dog and a painting?” Lieber was heading home from a physical therapy session just around the corner of Lafayette Street and Spring Street in SoHo, when he saw his subject about to cross the street. “I like the expression on his face, the contrast of the two things in his hands,” he says. “The whole shot makes me curious: what is he doing? What is he thinking? Who is he?” He shot using an iPhone 14 Pro Max and edited with the Hipstamatic app.

The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend.

after newsletter promotion

“I come from a film and darkroom background as a photographer, so digitally processing my images is akin to going into the darkroom. I played around with the clarity, highlights and shadows, and applied some filters, including converting to black and white, which I find lends itself well to street photography.”

For the last 10 years, Lieber has been taking part in a challenge to take 365 photos a year; one a day. “Pictures and stories are all around us,” he says. “This is a slice of life in New York City on a Friday morning in November.”