Sepp Werkmeister Captured the Street Style of New York in the '60s

While the recent phenomenon of #Streetsnaps promises to flood our feeds at every international fashion week, in addition to the regular output from the likes of Bill Cunningham and Scott Schuman, there were several pioneering souls who focused their lens on the common folk of the city streets decades before it was a thing. Among them is renowned jazz photographer Sepp Werkmeister who, in between flitting from performances by Ella Fitzgerald and Miles Davis, would train his camera on the inhabitants of Harlem, the East Village, and Times Square. Ninety full-color street photographs of his taken between 1965-75 have been compiled into a new book titled New York: Sepp Werkmeister, which is due to be released this month. Take a look at the street scenes of a half-century ago in the above slideshow, and make a point to check out the California skate scene of the ’70s in this photo essay too.