Photographer Mike Stein followed a simple rule while shooting for the venerable Prospect Press: no grip-and-grins.
Stein did everything he could to avoid snapping standard photo-ops in favor of more spontaneous images while working for the paper, which covered Park Slope’s early gentrification between 1982 and 1987.
“I looked to avoid the typical clichés that you always see in news photography,” said Stein, whose work is now on display at the Central Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library.
“I was trying to find the meaningful or artistic moments in everyday events.”
In his five years at the biweekly paper — which was based in the Seventh Avenue storefront currently occupied by Assemblyman Jim Brennan — Stein climbed from a freelance photographer to the editor of the periodical, which covered Park Slope, Windsor Terrance, Kensington and Sunset Park with a 30,000-copy print run.
Mike Stein’s photography at the Central Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library [Grand Army Plaza in Crown Heights, (718) 230-2762].
