Richard Sandler
Richard Sandler (born 1946) is an American street photographer and documentary filmmaker who has made work in New York City. • Illustration — Richard Sandler in Vancouver Canada. His photographs have been published in The Eyes of the City (2016) and are held in the collections of Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. His films include The Gods of Times Square (1999), Brave New York (2004), and Radioactive City (2011).
Richard Sandler

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- Born
- 1946
- Nationality
- United States
- Occupation
- photographer
- Honours
- Guggenheim Fellowship
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Richard Sandler (born 1946) is an American street photographer and documentary filmmaker who has made work in New York City. • Illustration — Richard Sandler in Vancouver Canada. His photographs have been published in The Eyes of the City (2016) and are held in the collections of Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. His films include The Gods of Times Square (1999), Brave New York (2004), and Radioactive City (2011).
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Richard Sandler (born 1946) is an American photographer.
Works by the photographer are held at Brooklyn Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and Photography Collection. Richard Sandler received Guggenheim Fellowship.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
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wikidata · Q42313419 · wikipedia · Richard Sandler
In this article
Life and work
Life and work
He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship for filmmaking.
Sandler grew up in Forest Hills, Queens, New York City. In 1968, he moved to Boston to work as a macrobiotic chef, and later as an acupuncturist. At some point he boarded with motivational psychologist David McClelland and his wife Mary. "Mary gave Sandler her Leica 3F in 1977 and taught him how to develop film in their basement darkroom." That year he began making photographs on the streets of Boston, which led to him working as a photojournalist. Three years later he moved back to New York City where he continued to make street photographs until September 11, 2001. Sandler had begun making films in New York in the early 1990s and after 9/11 he switched from photography to filmmaking, producing a series of free-form documentaries. His book, The Eyes of the City (2016), contains photographs made between 1977 and the weeks before 9/11 in New York and Boston, with most from between 1977 and 1992 in New York, and several from Boston. Sandler's work was featured in a retrospective exhibition at the Bronx Documentary Center in New York City from February 11 to March 26, 2023.
Exhibitions
Exhibitions
• The Eyes of the City, a retrospective, the Bronx Documentary Center, New York City, February 11 – March 26, 2023
Publications
• The Eyes of the City. Brooklyn, NY: powerHouse, 2016. With a foreword by David Isay and an afterword by Jonathan Ames..
Films
Sandler directed and produced the following documentaries: • The Gods of Times Square (1999) • Brave New York (2004) • Sway (2006) • Everybody Is Hurting (2006) • The Rocks of Eternity: Conversations with Satish Kumar (2007) • Forever and Sunsmell (2010) • Radioactive City (2011)
Collections
Collections
Sandler's work is held in the following permanent collections: • Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York: 2 prints (as of 3 October 2022) • Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas: 1 print1 (as of 3 October 2022)
Documents and archives
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Richard Sandler”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q42313419: Richard Sandler
General reference · Wikidata
Awards
• 2006: Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation for filmmaking
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Bellamy. Richard Sandler: New York street photographer -. japancamerahunter.com. 5 February 2022.
- 2.Seymour, Tom. Richard Sandler's The Eyes of the City to be published again with new unseen images. British Journal of Photography.
- 3.These photos show a New York that doesn't really exist anymore. Washington Post. 8 November 2016.
- 4.Works - Richard Sandler - People - The MFAH Collections. mfah.org.
- 5.Brooklyn Museum. www.brooklynmuseum.org.
- 6.Richard Sandler. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
- 7.Gonzalez, David. Beauty, Politics and Humor in a Rapidly Changing City. The New York Times. 26 October 2017.
- 8.Meet the Unsung Street Photographer of 1980s New York. Time.
- 9.Meier, Allison. Richard Sandler's Startling Photographs of Pre-9/11 New York. Hyperallergic. 27 January 2017.
- 10.Juxtapoz Magazine - Richard Sandler "The Eyes of the City" @ Bronx Documentary Center. www.juxtapoz.com.
- 11.Weinstock, Tish. richard sandler has been photographing new york street life for decades. i-D.
- 12.Stone, Mee-Lai. Between the streets: shades of New York – in pictures. The Guardian. 27 February 2023. 0261-3077.
References
Citations
References
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General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 18 August 2026.
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