Man in Times Square, New York

1954
Not on view
Born in Brooklyn, Louis Stettner enlisted in the U.S. Army Signal Corps at age eighteen and requested to be trained as a combat photographer. He served during World War II in New Guinea and the Philippines and after armistice was sent to Hiroshima, Japan. This formative experience would shape his life as a photographer: "It is hard to assess what taking battle pictures has meant to me as a photographer. I do know that I lived and fought together with my fellow countrymen—fishermen, industrial workers, storekeepers—whom I had only brushed up against in Times Square. . . . How they successfully fought against fascism has given me a faith in human beings that has never left me."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Man in Times Square, New York
  • Artist: Louis Stettner (American, New York 1922–2016 Saint-Ouen, France)
  • Date: 1954
  • Medium: Gelatin silver print
  • Dimensions: 34.4 x 23.1 cm (13 9/16 x 9 1/16 in.)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Gift of the artist, 1986
  • Object Number: 1986.1055.1
  • Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

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Louis Stettner - Man in Times Square, New York - The Metropolitan Museum of Art