Book tip: Tall Socks

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April 29, 2025

Tall Socks, 1973

Classic street photographer Mark Cohen set out with his Leica M3, in 1973, to explore the streets of New York City. A selection of his pictures has now appeared as a book.

Street photography and Leica are a perfect fit: Garry Winogrand, Lee Friedlander, Joel Meyerowitz, Bruce Gilden and many others have all taken their Leica cameras on forays through major cities. Mark Cohen is also one of a group of American author photographers who, with their direct approach, have written a style-defining chapter in street photography. A Leica was just right for him, too: using this small, light and discreet camera, the photographer remains almost invisible, moves with the flow of the street, blends in with the passers-by, and can react quickly to unusual or striking features within the urban environment. Cohen uses a wide-angle lens, combines a hand-held flash with daylight, and often photographs at waist height, so that his perspectives surprise the viewer, time and again. He concentrates on things and places that are often overlooked, extracts figures from daily life situations, and peeks curiously through doorways. As a result, the familiar appears both new and strange.

A collection of pictures, taken by Cohen over 50 years ago in New York, is now being published for the first time in a photo book titled Tall Socks. In July, 1973, Cohen lived for a month in New York University accommodation, while attending a film production workshop. The daily classes were short, so he used his free time to wander around the city with his Leica M3 and a 28mm Elmarit lens. At the time, only a few images got printed; the majority have remained unseen, until now. The New York of the 1970s was infamous, due to its high crime rate, the social disquiet, the unsafe underground and the decreasing quality of life. Cohen’s photographs show garbage and ruins, but also a New York full of life and movement. Even though the sequence in the book does not follow a formal narrative, the pace of the images transmits the sense of a brisk walk through the city. From block to block, there are changes that the photographer reveals in detailed and spontaneous impressions. Some of the pictures convey a threatening mood; but there is also humour and joy, such as in a child’s long socks – which give the book its title –, a lady with peacock feathers, and a girl carrying a wooden board across a cobbled street.

Mark Cohen was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1943. With the exception of a short time in Europe, he has worked and lived there for most of his life. This is where he would simply go outside to take photographs. He did not need to travel, because the streets offered an endless array of possibilities and variations each day. The same working method applied during his brief time in New York. All he had to do was walk. In 2014, Cohen moved to Philadelphia. He has received two Guggenheim Fellowships, and his works are included in numerous public international collections.

Ulrich Rüter

Tall Socks, 1973