Jack Weingarten — 3rd Place, Street
An interview with Jack Weingarten
GLPA 2025 Winner Interview
Jack Weingarten — 3rd Place, Street
Before We Had Cell Phones
We’re delighted to feature Jack Weingarten, 3rd Place in Street at the Global Lens Photography Awards 2025.
His photograph Before We Had Cell Phones is witty, elegant, and instantly memorable—an image that feels both rooted in another era and surprisingly current.
With sharp timing, instinct, and a gift for the incongruous, Jack transforms an everyday street encounter into a photograph that continues to resonate far beyond its moment.
The title “Before We Had Cell Phones” immediately places the image in another era. When you look at it today, what does it mean to you now that so much has changed?
One review of this image described it as “timeless.” I like to think that’s true; that the image has meaning even though so much has changed.
You mention leaving a restaurant and suddenly seeing the scene unfold. What was it about those four men—their spacing, body language, or rhythm—that told you this was the moment?
All of the above. They were so different. Body types. Clothing. Body language. Central casting could not have provided better subjects for this photograph.
You had a Hasselblad with you, but instinctively reached for the Minolta point-and-shoot. How important has speed and intuition been in your street photography over the years?
Very important. I carried a point and shoot for times when I knew I couldn’t make all the adjustments on the Hasselblad. When I went digital, I opted for
cameras that handle exposure and focus automatically and I never looked back.
The image feels humorous, but also strangely elegant. Do you think the best street photographs often hold both qualities at once?
I like to get humor into my photographs, but I don’t go looking for it. Closely akin to humor is what I call the incongruous image; a photo you have to
look at twice to figure out what you’re looking at. Another photographer referred to this kind of photo as a WTF image. You look at it and say,
“What the f..k!”
You say, “Sometimes we get lucky.” How much of a photograph like this is luck, and how much is the result of years of seeing and being ready?
There’s a lot of luck in street photography to be sure. But you need experience and instincts to recognize a lucky encounter when it happens.
Do you remember anything about the atmosphere around that scene—the sounds, the pace of the street, or your own feeling in that split second?
No, but that’s not surprising. When I happen on a great image, I zone in on it to the exclusion of everything else. I guess I have a knack for this,
even in the chaotic environs of New York City, where I do most of my work.
This photograph now reads almost like social history. When you were making pictures then, were you aware that everyday public life might one day feel this distant?
It never occurred to me. And in a sense, it’s not so distant. Yes, pay phones speak of another time. But you have four guys totally absorbed in their
phone calls. Nothing distant about that.
What does this GLPA recognition mean to you, and when you look back across your photographic life, what kind of moments still stay with you most strongly?
A third-place finish in a prestigious international competition. It doesn’t get any better than that (Well, maybe a first or second). What stays with me
depends on the photograph in question. I’m seventy-seven. I look back on those years and I know I’ve been very fortunate in many ways. My photographs
are often a reminder of just how lucky I’ve been. The photos that most strongly affect me are the images of family. My greatest good fortune relates to
my family, both immediate and extended. Some of those family photos have even been award winners.
