CONTINUING THE BALANCE...
Landon W. Central Park New York, NY 2002
Andrew C. - Fire Island Long Island, NY 2011
New York, NY April 2022 - NYPD
Christopher T. - Cayman Islands British Overseas Territories 2009 - IMAGE DIGITALLY RESTORED
GREG I. - Cayman Islands British Overseas Territories 2009 - IMAGE DIGITALLY RESTORED
Florida Highway, March 2025
Jacob Grady - 2025 Ocala Florida - Ocala Gun Range - "When I saw him I knew that I had to have his photograph. His height, size and demenor just struck me." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
Simon - Ocala, FL 2025 - "I absolutley just feel in love with his face." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
Lindenhurst Long Island, NY - The Lindenhurst St. Patricks Day Parade Infront of the Belfast Bar & Grill
Nassau County Long Island, NY 2020 - "Some of the more interesting Images taken at a Pro-Police Rally. I loved how raw the atmosphere was with heated emotion." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
New York, NY 2020 - "Walking around the streets of New York on a cold winter's day I was snapping away at what I thought were interesting faces. She Immeditley caught my eye and you can see why." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
Babylon Village Long Island, NY - Lily's Of Babylon 2020 - “Today, I am going to photograph someone…and they will love me for it!” - Unknown
Brian Millet, NYC Early 2000's - "We were friends for years and after I moved for the millionth time he would come to visit me. These three are from and handful of photos I took of him this day. He passed away some years ago. How grateful I am to have these moments we shared." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
Myself and Timothy C. goofing around, Brooklyn, NY 2013
Timothy C. 2010 Portland Oregon
Carlo 2002 New York, NY
"After taking these I would ask him if he would pose for me formally. With glee he said 'Yes!'. Those Images appear in PORTRAITS II." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
Hannah H. 1996 New York, NY - “We were just kids back then that laughed with each other and had no fear. Our youth was nothing short of madness and we reveled in it every moment. Her feminity was just so powerful, she made me melt!” - Andre Steven Rutgersen
Lilys of Babylon, Babylon Village Long Island, NY
Babylon Village Long Island, NY - “It’s the absurdity that keeps me doing this. I know there’s no shortage of it which is why I’m still at it.” - Andre Steven Rutgersen
Lilys of Babylon, Babylon Village Long Island, NY
Alex T. - New York City, Central Park 2007 - DIGITALLY RESTORED 2026
New York, NY 2022 - "Even today I just can't explain how I've gotten moments like this. After 3 years and just finding these." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
Lily's Of Babylon - Babylon Village Long Island, NY 2021 - "Pictures are an escape. They should be bigger than life." - David LaChapelle (Photographer)
Babylon Village Long Island, NY 2019 - Lily Flanagan's
Thomas Core - Columbus Ave. and 86th Street New York, NY 1996 - Another set of candids of a friend from way back that I've traveled with for decades.
Cormac Bernard Gerrity - Babylon Village Long Island, NY 2019
Long Island, NY 2022 - "I love that I don't have to explain anything about this." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
Seaford Long Island, NY 2020
"No movie director can arrange the unexpected that you find in the street.” -Robert Doisneau ( Photographer)
“It's a brief moment of two lives overlapping with no threat of a juxtaposition. It's what this kind of photography is." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
“One of the risks of appearing in public is the likelihood of being photographed.” ― Diane Arbus
NYC Harlem 123rd Street Adam Clayton Jr. Blvd and Marcus Garvey Park- Between 2000 and 2003
“I never stopped taking photographs, It's like eating when your hungry. I was and still am starving! (laughing)” - Andre Steven Rutgersen
"I lived here for a few years while working in lower Manhattan. On my days off I walked around taking photographs of the people that lived and worked in my neighborhood with my simple relic of a camera which I loved.
All I saw was hope. In people, where I lived and worked. With a camera it was like looking at everything for the first time.
These black and white Images are to me a testament to the fragility of people. There's no rhyme or reason for these Images other than just understanding the lives living around me." - Andre Steven rutgersen
I was never afraid asking people if I could take their photograph. What I found and still find poignant looking at all these faces I encountered was that they weren't afraid either." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
Sean F. New York City, The Upper East Side 1995 - "These are some of the oldest photos I have managed to hold onto for 30 years. He was an art major in college at the time and a co-worker at a coffee shop on 72nd Street and Columbus Ave. He was the epitome of 'Quiet Cool' then. He asked me to take these photos of him for a self portrait painting that he had planned on creating.
He asked me to take these photos of him for a self portrait painting that he had planned on creating. I would take over ten photographs of him in his apartment on the upper west side. Back then I used a disposable camera's because they were cheap and easy to deal with.
I would take over ten photographs of him in his apartment on the upper west side. For these I used a disposable camera because they were cheap and easy to deal with. After the photos where developed I would take them to Shawn and after going through them he decided on 6 images that he thought were in line with what he had planned.
The remaining photographs he would say I could keep because they were too silly for what he wanted to do. I would put the remaining images away and forget about them for well over 20 years. Finding these would bring back a wave of memories. Mr. Fields would go on to graduate college and continue his career in art. It's just nice to know that I was small part of his wonderful journey." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
ELLESEUS K. - Quebec, Canada 2006
"I lived a whole other life back then. All I did was sit on the ground this cold afternoon with my rinky dink camera and snap away much to his chagrin. Eventually he warmed up to the lens and turned a few minutes on a boring day into a silly event." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
New York City - "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." - Henri Cartier-Bresson (Photographer)
Cliffard Richardson Mathewson III - Long Island, NY 2021 - "What I liked about him was his telling of the storms he'd weathered in his life. They changed him but didnt' destroy him. He stopped waiting for all the downpours to pass and just learned to dance in the rain." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
"I just had my camera and he had himself and as corny as it sounds something clicked." - Andre Steven Rutgersen - "I don't have a choice but to be myself. Everyone else is taken." - Cliffard Richardson Mathewson III
Long Island, NY - "The one, two or three cameras I run around with I didn’t intend any of this. That’s why it’s such a true payoff." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
Lindenhurst Long Island, NY - "When I capture images like this I remember my joy way back when. I haven't let that go. I hope they never do." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
"Just smile and live life and you'll be young forever." - Unknown
“If they’re compelling to me I’m going to showcase them. It’s like being in the wild, you don’t know, I never know.” - Andre Steven Rutgersen
Coreyanne Armstrong and the New York Caledonian Pipe Band - New York, NY - "I'm glad I had more than one camera this day." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
Amityville Highland Pipeband - Long Island, NY
Long Island New York, Dennis H. "Moments like this more than half the time trump what I'm usually after." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
Belfast Gastropub Lindenhurst, Long Island, NY 2023 - “It’s light, shadow and texture. We photographers find it poetic and emotional.” - Unknown
“That eye contact still rattles me but in the best way. It won’t last any longer than a second or two but it’s the most important few seconds.” - Andre Steven Rutgersen
“He’s having fun. That’s how I know him, it’s how anyone that knows him knows him. You don't wanna know anyone that's not as fun." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
"Paticus Beach" - Patrick Mulligan Babylon Village Long Island, NY - “I saw something majestic, I saw something just magnificent.” - Andre Steven Rutgersen
Lily Flanaghan's - Babylon Village Long Island, NY - "It's about the life being lived in that moment. All that humanity. No matter how absurd or serious." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
"The subject matter is so much more important than the photographer. Always." - Gordon Parks (Photographer)
"Photography is an austere and blazing poetry of the real." - Ansel Adams (Photographer)
Georg R. NYC - “Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.” – Marc Riboud / "Back then some how I always managed to have a camera. A camera loaded with film for who knows what. This is one of the fun reasons why." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
Babylon Village Long Island, NY - The above photo: Gay Pride Babylon Village, Long Island NY, featured in the portrait photography book "Faces, Outtakes & A Few More Observations" 2021
"I could photograph a million other things but people are the best. No matter how matter of fact a moment may seem I always see something glorious." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
“Photography is the recording of strangeness and beauty with beguiling precision.”– Sebastian Smee
"What a great disservice it would be if I left my camera home." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
County Armagh Pipers Band Long Island, NY - "I thought this was something quite grand." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
Roisin Dubh Pipe Band East Islip Long Island, NY
“Taking so many images it’s unfortunate that moments like this can be overlooked. It would have been tragic to not share these!” - Andre Steven Rutgersen
"I've always worked with two different cameras because I love color as much as black and white. The idea of picking one over the other is something I just would never want to have to do." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
Seaford Long Island, NY - September 11th, 20 Years Later - "Not every photo is deep or profound, there are some that I just really like." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
"I love that a photo I've taken can mean something to someone or to a whole bunch of people. Most of the time who's in the photo never has any idea." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
“Amidst the chaos I saw this brief moment of peace.” - Andre Steven Rutgersen
Wantag Pipe Band - Lindenhurst Long Island, NY - "Sometimes mistakes are made, I don't always get the whole picture. Sometimes I just don't need to." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
Elevator Constructors Pipes & Drums, Long Island New York, - "I'm glad I kept this moment from running away." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
Saffron United Pipe Band - Babylon Village Long Island, New York
"I don't know exactly what path he's been on but it looks like where ever it leads to he own's the place.." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
Mr. Alan Noli
Roisin Dubh Irish Pipe Band - East Islip Long Island, New York - "It's the simplicity that makes this work." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
County Armagh Pipers Band - Long Island, New York - "To me every face in every photo I take is a work in progress and a triumph." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
Brian M. Long Island, NY - "I'm so grateful doing this. I've said it over and over, faces have never let down." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
Long Island, NY 2022 - "There are some candid moments that I see as portrait moments." - Andre Steven Rutgersen
