Roy Feldman in The Hamtramck Review

The Hamtramck Review, Volume 12, Number 17, May 1, 2020

by Alan Madlane

Roy Feldman is a Hamtramck photographer with a hefty resume.

Forty Years in the business have certainly taught him a thing or three about his chosen craft.

Last month, his newest exhibit, titled “Truth & Grace,” was on display at the M Contemporary Art gallery in Ferndale. The exhibit features many Hamtramck residents as subjects.

The coronavirus put the stops to that, alas. But, you can see his work online at mcontemporaryart.com/roy-feldman.

Feldman’s credentials could fill a gallery by themselves.

They include hundreds of assignments as a freelancer for the Detroit Free Press, as well as about a thousand more for the C&G newspaper chain across the metro area.

Feldman was also the official photog for the Jazz Festival and the Auto Show; official stills photographer for GM, Navistar Defense, the Kresge Foundation and the Midwest divisiion of the U.S. Department of Energy; and a staff photographer at Ford Motor when the job paid a cushy six-figure salary with a company car thrown in; when private jet travel alongside William Clay Ford became the norm.

He’s taught his craft at the College for Creative Studies; had photos in Elizabeth Avedon’s limited edition book “Fossils of Light + Time;” and is a member of both the National Press Photographers and the White House Press Photographers.

Suffice to say he’s paid some dues.

These days, he co-produces a Tuesday night PBS program called “Detroit Performs,” and also focuses on his art as what he calls a “documentary style” photographer "(he doesnt care for the term “street photography” so much).

He resides about a stone’s throw from the Review’s office, and popped by to answer a few quick questions:

Review: Were you from Hamtramck originally?

Feldman: No. I’m originally from Detroit, the east side.

Review: How long have you been a working photographer?

Feldman: About 40 years overall. Twenty-five making money from it.

Review: How did you get into it, or what brought you to it as a vocation?

Feldman: I did snapshots at first. Then, at a place where I was working, I won’t say where, I got to watch a pro at work. Eventually, I became an assistant for him.

Review: Talk about how you came to do street photography.

Feldman: I don’t like that term, street photography. I don’t feel that’s what my work is.

Review: Can you describe your process or approach, then?

Feldman: I try to simply take “truthful” photos. No Photoshopping. There is the element of serependity, of chance, luck. I find that too many so-called street photographers go for the sensational shot, even if it’s not always fully respectful of their subjects.

I always try to make respectful photographs, ones that give the subject dignity. I just want to make well-composed, “normal” shots.

Review: When did you finally settle here?

Feldman: About two years ago. I like the people, the arts community. I found that I kept on coming here over and over to interview folks.

My photos, I feel, are the kind that can’t be made unless you know the city, the people you’re taking them of. Some of my subjects, I get invited into their homes now, get invited over for meals or so on.

That’s why I like this town so much; you don’t have that happen everywhere.

Again, that website for Feldman’s photos is: mcontemporaryart.com/roy-feldman.