Couple, Orvieto, 2010

"When on a proper vacation, there should only be one truly important question for the day: 'Where shall we have lunch?' From the answer to that question the entire day can unfold. On this particular day in 2010 the answer to the to the question was the beautiful Umbrian city of Orvieto. Up a small alleyway was a tiny courtyard with a delightful little restaurant. As we were waiting for our meal to arrive, I was watching the couple at the next table. As in Mainz 14 years earlier, there was a tangible electricity in the air." (Richard Bram)

The Look, Mainz, 1996

"This was my first trip to Germany, attending an art exchange festival between Mainz and Louisville, Kentucky, where I was then living. There were awards ceremonies and speeches going on inside so I went out for a some air. I noticed this couple having an intense moment. I know nothing about them or what may or may not have been happening, but I think it is obvious. There was an electricity between them when I made the photo much strong than if they were actually touching; as if a spark was about to 'zzzap' between them."

"This photo is an example of the difference between color and black and white in photography, and why I often say that color is more difficult to do well because there are so many more variables to deal with. In black and white, you don't pay attention to the out-of-focus little girl in the background. But she was wearing an intensely bright yellow/purple/red patterned jacket, and in color,your eye would go directly to it, unable to keep away, and taking you away from the main subjects and ruining the photograph."
(Richard Bram)

Havana Fog, 2016

"In early March of 2016 we were in Havana for a photographic sojourn. In a moment reminiscent of today, it was the time of the ZIKA virus, spread by mosquitoes. Early one morning I was out walking around when I heard trucks moving through the streets and a thick fog seemed to fill the streets. It was insecticide being sprayed openly into the air to keep the mosquito population and thus the disease at bay. In the dawn light it was both beautiful and eerie. Just after I made the photo I fled up the street away from the airborne fumigant." (Richard Bram)

Muhammad Ali, Louisville, 1986

"I've never been one to chase celebrities around like one of the paparazzi, though I have photographed many in the course of my career. I was walking around downtown Louisville one summer day in 1986 when I noticed a truck stopped and people gathered around it. There in the open back was Muhammad Ali himself signing Korans and handing them out as well as chatting with well-wishers. It struck me as amusing that he was doing so on the renamed Muhammad Ali Boulevard in his home city where in segregated times he wasn't allowed to sit at a lunch counter."
(Richard Bram)

Dominican Day Parade, New York, 2005

"It was a very hot August Day in New York in 2005. I had gone out for a walk and came upon the Dominican Day Parade on Sixth Avenue. There are parades all the time (in normal circumstances) for nearly anything and they are fun events to shoot. In particular it is the spectators that have always interested me more than the parade itself. Anyway, I was walking up the street and I saw these young men standing in the window frames. I made a couple of photos of them when the one man put his arm up to wipe the sweat from his brow. Thus he completed the virtual arch between the two sour older women on the edges and made. Only one frame worked and this was it. Only a few months before I had bought my first digital SLR and therefore was working in color, unusual for me in my personal at the time. This photograph has gone on to be published many times, most notably in Joel Meyerowitz and Colin Westerbeck's seminal Bystander: A History of Street Photography."
(Richard Bram)

Wall Street Fall, New York, 2008

"I was walking back from the Post Office to our home in lower Manhattan. Suddenly a strong summer rainstorm hit so i was waiting for it to pass beneath a marquee. I always have a camera with me. To pass the time, I was making photos of people rushing past through the rain. The Leica M6 manual camera was set to the right exposure, the focus distance was ready at the correct distance. Suddenly this man slipped and fell. 'Click' - I made the photo almost automatically. He wasn't hurt, just wet and unhappy. As my wife often says, 'Chance favours the prepared mind.'"
(Richard Bram)