The Taxi That Became a Camera: Discovering Ryan Weideman’s NYC in Motion

The Legacy of a Rolling Darkroom

© Ryan Weideman Self-Portrait with Coy Female, 1997 - Gelatin silver print

I recently stumbled upon the story of Ryan Weideman, and I’ve been fascinated by it ever since. It’s one of those rare creative ideas that feels so obvious in retrospect, you wonder how no one else thought of it before. What a great idea—and how well executed. Visit the collection of his photography here!

Weideman moved to New York in 1980, a time when the city was raw, chaotic, and endlessly alive. A recent graduate with a master’s degree in photography and dreams of making it as a street photographer, he soon realised that inspiration wasn’t the issue—survival was. To pay the rent, he became a taxi driver. That job, however, didn’t take him away from his art. Instead, it became the medium through which his most powerful work would emerge.