Will Delaney

Will delaney

Will delaney, attended Germain School of Photography in New York City. After graduating, he worked at many of the top photo labs in NYC. This gave him exposure to many great photographers and he learned what it takes to makes an exceptional image. He also spent 10 years as a photographer and lab technician for the NYC Police Department.

How did you start photography?

The ability to capture a moment in time in an image that can never be repeated is what lured me to the art of photography. The 1960’s movie, “Blow Up”, in which a murder is uncovered through an enlarged photo, was the start of my interest in the world of photography. There is an element of surprise in every image almost all of the time. All one has to do is to take a good look.

What is your opinion about contemporanean photography?

As digital photography started to take the main stage, my interest shifted away from taking photos. I didn’t care for the lack of skill that I thought this type of photography encouraged.

Retirement and cell phones brought me back to photography. I missed capturing those unrepeatable moments. Mobile phone photography often makes the photographer invisible and this is often the key to an amazing moment. Editing apps allow cropping, composition and color correction to be easier and at the same time still require the skills necessary to make a great image.

My images are about people being themselves, not acting for others, but showing how they perceive the world and how they want to be perceived. This is human expression at its finest!

Tell us about your work to the NYPD I was assigned to the NYPD photo unit in the early 1980’s. This unit was responsible for photographing (mug shots) people arrested for felonies. This was the height of the crack drug epidemic. Many of these people were detained for drugs, prostitution and violent crimes. It wasn’t uncommon for them to be arrested multiple times – as many as ten times - in one year. As I photographed these people over a brief period of time, the devastating toll that this drug crack cocaine took on their lives and appearance was shocking and disturbing. In one year’s time, they became unrecognizable from the photos previously taken.

You would have to look at the profile shot and match their ear.

This is why a profile photo is taken along with a full face image.

Even though these photos were taken for identification they were truly portraits documenting the hard lives of drug dealers, addicts and prostitutes.