By Mary K. Levie
Contributing Writer
When walking the streets of New York, a careful observer notices the stories that strangers’ faces tell.
One such observer, 1999 U of M graduate Shannon Fagan, has received recognition for his photographs of apartment doormen in his neighborhood on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
“I was particularly fascinated with them late at night, when I would come home off the subway, and I would look out of the corner of my eye and would see the doormen kind of hanging out,” Fagan said.
Fagan said he was particularly interested in the kinds of things the doormen were doing, such as reading, watching TV, listening to the radio, or seeming lost in their own thoughts.
Some of the doormen had recently moved to New York from other countries or cities. Others were students both young and old. Fagan said he enjoyed getting to know these men and learning about their lives as well as their thoughts on being doormen.
“One man described himself as being a psychiatrist,” Fagan said. “He felt that the job was to be there, be friendly, have a smile on his face and to be very agreeable no matter what was brought to him from the tenants.”
Fagan built the doormen body of work into a portfolio and showed it to magazines and newspapers.
The New York Times ended up using five of his doormen photos and assigned a reporter to write a story about the lives of New York City doormen to go along with them. Fagan gave the Times reporter some of his notes from talking with the doormen and contacted the ones who were going to be in the paper to ask for their permission.
“They had remembered me from when I photographed them, and they made an assumption that they’d probably never see me again, and nothing would ever come of it,” Fagan said. “It was nice that something actually was able to come of it.”
Fagan pursues personal photography projects in his free time when he is not freelancing as a photo assistant for various photographers in the city. He works with many different kinds of photographers who specialize in different types of work, including portrait, still life and catalog work.
“There are so many photographers here that you can go from place to place and learn from someone that does one particular kind of photography very well,” Fagan said.
Not only is he perfecting technical skills through assisting, but also the business side of photography, such as how to run a studio, gain clients and market himself, Fagan said.
Another project Fagan is pursuing that stemmed from the doormen project is photographing workers — primarily in the service industry — that he sees on the street.
“I really enjoy learning about what people do in their jobs, and what excites them,” Fagan said. “It’s kind of a process, in that it reinvigorates me and makes me learn about myself and where I’m at.”
Recently Fagan was selected as one of the 30 photographers to watch by Photo District News, a respected industry magazine. Various photography professionals submit nominations to the magazine for selection for the special issue.
A different kind of project Fagan has been working on is close-up, abstract shots of doctors’ prescriptions. This project developed from a fascination with the economic and social aspects of the medical field, Fagan said. He plans to combine this work with a study he did at The U of M of blackboards in various departments that had equations and foreign text he didn’t comprehend.
“The bodies of work that I’ve done have always been a combination of something that was interesting visually, but the spark for it was something that was interesting to me intellectually.”
The doormen project similarly reflects Fagan’s interest in learning more about his subjects, not simply presenting a pleasing visual, but examining many levels of the individual doorman.
“A doorman’s picture is not only about a guy at work, but about his position in society, or his position within himself, or within that building, or embodying in the picture a facial expression that makes one wonder what he feels, or reminding me of how I feel at different times.”
