The top photo I took in Washington Square (in NYC) probably the spring of 1988. The bottom photo is from the New York Times from the next day.
When I took this photo I was just beginning as a photographer and roaming NYC in search for interesting things to photograph, etc.
The day after I took my photo, I went to school in Queens where I processed the film and made this print. On the way home on the train to Brooklyn I was glancing at someone's New York Times and saw what appeared, at first, to be my image.
I marveled at the similarities but the NYT photographer's image was obviously quite better. But, we must have been standing almost beside each other and snapped out pictures 1/500 of a second apart.
When I finally picked up a copy of the paper and could see it better, I had an additional surprise to see that the photographer was Dith Pran
After I scanned these images earlier this week, I actually wrote to Mr. Pran showing him the comparison.
He actually wrote me back quite quickly and said that he remembered that moment quite well...
Re: Washington Square Photo by Clay Walker on Mar 27, 2007 at 3:42:57 am
One other very interesting tidbit surrounding the timing of when I took this photo, and makes this coincidence even more dynamic, was that I had also recently photographed the great Spalding Gray in Brooklyn.
