E.B. White once wrote that New York is made up of “strangers who have pulled up stakes somewhere and come to town, seeking sanctuary or fulfillment or some greater or lesser grail.” That was true in 1949, true when Weideman landed in Manhattan in 1980, and it remains true today. His photographs honor that restless pursuit, staged not in galleries or studios, but in the fleeting, in-between space of a taxi’s back seat.
In My Taxi is a love letter to those interstitial moments: drag queens en route to their gigs, businessmen buzzing between appointments, girls tumbling home from a night out, legends like Allen Ginsberg or the Beastie Boys flashing a grin before the light turns green. Weideman didn’t just document the ride – he was part of the party, often appearing in the frame himself, camera raised, eyes wide. In Self-Portrait with Black and White Couple, all three faces glow half in shadow, half in flash-lit defiance. The chemistry is electric.
Punk Donna in Boots and Backseat, 1982
