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Book tip: New York Short Stories
Book tip: New York Short Stories
October 27, 2025
New York City, time and again! Photos books dedicated to the city fill endless shelf space, and yet ever more photographers are tempted to try and capture their own visual summaries. Beyond all the role models and clichés, it is important to experience the hustle and bustle of New York’s streets and squares yourself, so as to bring your own understanding and preferences into the equation. This was the case for Mario Schneider, a successful documentary filmmaker, director, film composer and author. The fact that he is also a virtuoso with the camera is revealed in the photo book he has published under the concise title, New York Short Stories.
Impressions from the subway, at the beach, in parks, bars and street cafés; but, above all, very direct portraits of people in the streets, who react – more or less – to the photographer’s camera. Lively or forlorn, merry or melancholic, happy or sceptical: a kaleidoscope of human emotions and sensitivities. Schneider’s pictures for this photo book were taken over the last three years, and yet, they often appear timeless.
The photographer was born in 1970, in a small village in Saxony-Anhalt. Within the reality of his life as a youngster in the former East Germany, New York was nothing more than a distant dream: “New York was a place of longing for me, just as I would have loved to see the Rings of Saturn,” he remembers. “What seemed unattainable for me until I was 20 years old, a place I would never see, only became tangible with my camera in recent years.” His first visit, in the year 2000, left a strong impression: after having travelled all over Europe as a tourist, in New York he was overwhelmed by a completely new feeling of homecoming. The city was much more than what he knew from films. He experienced the snobbish side of wealthy High Society, as well as the city’s dark side of violence and poverty. The juxtaposition was a shock that immediately led to distance again. He only took a few pictures at the time, and it would be two years before he was to return with a camera and artistic aims. Upon returning, he photographed (often using his Leica Q cameras) from morning to night, producing very personal reflections on proximity, identity and presence.
“I can describe my photos from New York as an East German view of the city. Although the fall of the Berlin Wall was over 30 years ago, my time as a photographer on the streets of New York felt like a journey from the past to the present,” Schneider muses. The images reflect the experience and perspective of the filmmaker who, as a storyteller, focuses on interpersonal encounters. The result is not a loud, garish book, but a sensitive examination of the chaos of everyday life.
Impressions from the subway, at the beach, in parks, bars and street cafés; but, above all, very direct portraits of people in the streets, who react – more or less – to the photographer’s camera. Lively or forlorn, merry or melancholic, happy or sceptical: a kaleidoscope of human emotions and sensitivities. Schneider’s pictures for this photo book were taken over the last three years, and yet, they often appear timeless.
The photographer was born in 1970, in a small village in Saxony-Anhalt. Within the reality of his life as a youngster in the former East Germany, New York was nothing more than a distant dream: “New York was a place of longing for me, just as I would have loved to see the Rings of Saturn,” he remembers. “What seemed unattainable for me until I was 20 years old, a place I would never see, only became tangible with my camera in recent years.” His first visit, in the year 2000, left a strong impression: after having travelled all over Europe as a tourist, in New York he was overwhelmed by a completely new feeling of homecoming. The city was much more than what he knew from films. He experienced the snobbish side of wealthy High Society, as well as the city’s dark side of violence and poverty. The juxtaposition was a shock that immediately led to distance again. He only took a few pictures at the time, and it would be two years before he was to return with a camera and artistic aims. Upon returning, he photographed (often using his Leica Q cameras) from morning to night, producing very personal reflections on proximity, identity and presence.
“I can describe my photos from New York as an East German view of the city. Although the fall of the Berlin Wall was over 30 years ago, my time as a photographer on the streets of New York felt like a journey from the past to the present,” Schneider muses. The images reflect the experience and perspective of the filmmaker who, as a storyteller, focuses on interpersonal encounters. The result is not a loud, garish book, but a sensitive examination of the chaos of everyday life.
All photos: © Mario Schneider, from: New York Short Stories, Kehrer 2025
New York Short Stories+-
With texts by Sergio Purtell, Andreas Reimann, Mario Schneider, Elin Spring.
Designed by Sisters of Design (Anja Krämer).
208 pages, 19 colour and 102 black and white images.
24 × 30 cm, German / English
Kehrer
Mario Schneider exhibitions+-
Schiefes Haus Gallery, Wernigerode, Germany, autumn 2025
Literaturhaus, Halle (Saale), Germany, February – April 2026
Fenster Gallery, Eberswalde, Germany 2026
