Ryan Weideman, Dee Dee With Radio, 1983
The inside of a New York taxicab is a place where the public realm blurs with the private, especially on the overnight shift. People fight, make love, eat takeout, throw up, fall asleep, concoct plans for world domination or a good night’s sleep. Many act as if the driver is not there. Ryan Weideman, a photographer who drove a taxi shift to make ends meet, decided to let them know that he was. It was 1980, four years after the movie “Taxi Driver” was released, and Mr. Weideman had a master’s degree in fine arts and a tenuous grasp of New York City geography. He also had a camera and the best studio he could ask for: a roomy old Checker cab that was his from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m. on weekends, when traffic thinned and tips were not always something he could count on. Turning the camera on his fares was a way to displace his rage at the inequities that come with a taxi, where the customer holds all the power and the driver does all the work. Sometimes he snapped people at the beginning of a ride, sometimes after he reached their destination. He mounted a strobe light onto the cab’s sun visor using rubber bands. He wasn’t fancy. Usually he asked permission, but at least once he said simply, “Don’t move, I’m a photographer,” and started shooting.
