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in the trenches
Job security can be rare in politics, but Marla Maritzer has been taking pictures for the New York City Comptroller's office since Alan Hevesi (D) was in charge. Eleven years later, she is still photographing the comptroller—now Bill Thompson (D)—and people still don't know her name.
Maritzer is fine with the anonymity. She says it makes her job all the easier.
"Often I'm in a room and I disappear once people become comfortable, so I can really capture the feeling of the people who are meeting with the comptroller," she said.
Since her days as a freelancer, Maritzer—who has a master's in social work—has tried to bring feelings into her pictures. She always tries to focus on interactions and faces. When she decided she wanted a full-time position, the opening in the comptroller's office allowed Maritzer to keep doing what she loved.
While her subjects have changed, Maritzer's method has remained the same—capturing an event's reality through spontaneous interactions.
"Sometimes at events there are photo-op opportunities and that's unavoidable for me," she said. "To me, if it's not a real interaction, it doesn't tell the story of what's happening."
Maritzer attends anywhere from six to 15 events weekly, but she says the job never gets old.
"Each opportunity is unique and exciting," Maritzer said. "I feel a part of the fabric of the city even though I am not directly involved."
Karl Crutchfield, who taught photography to fellow military policemen while stationed in Germany during the Vietnam War, has been watching Manhattan borough presidents from the sidelines for even longer than Maritzer.
On election night 1989, C. Virginia Fields first won a Council seat. Crutchfield, meanwhile, got his first political client.
An independent photographer, Crutchfield has been shooting politicians ever since—his current clients include Manhattan Democrats like Assembly Member Keith Wright, Rep. Charles Rangel and Borough President Scott Stringer.
His parents appointed him family photographer at age seven, and Crutchfield says he is still trying to improve on the style he started then.
"My technique is the posed-candid," he said. "I want people to be doing what they're supposed to be doing, but I'm still catching a candid moment."
Krutchfield also does other projects, but he says he never feels a conflict of interest between them. Neither does William Alatriste, the New York City Council's photographer, who believes the relationship between getting the right shot of a politician and his inclinations as an artist is harmonious.
Alatriste simply calls himself a photographer.
"I take photographs, and if by default some of those photographs are seen as publicity, or art, that's fine," he explained.
Rather than sticking in one spot for a whole event or press conference, he prefers to shoot on the fly from a variety of angles.
As the Council photographer, Alatriste also photographs a variety of personalities who all interact with the camera differently.
That, he said, is what differentiates his work photographing politicians from what he calls "regular folk." A former collegiate-level English teacher with a master's of fine arts in poetry, he has a wide variety of side-projects which have him photographing everything from Coney Island workers to his young children's toys.
"For one reason or another, they're usually in the public eye, and as a result, they understand the necessity and importance of photographs," he explained. "Makes my work that much easier."