Purple Martin Press

Paul McDonough’s Sight Seeing series has the artist leaving behind his foremost muse, the streets of New York City, and setting out on the road, traveling throughout the United States during the summer months of the 1970s and early 80s. In his travels, McDonough captures scenes of people at leisure: walking, playing, relaxing and flirting, and although he barely stops moving when he snaps these pictures, McDonough sacrifices nothing in the way of composition.

Although the landscape he encounters is very different from the dense metropolitan streets, McDonough’s Sight Seeing photographs are remarkably similar to his urban pictures. They retain the same aesthetic of street photography—pictures covertly taken of often unsuspecting subjects—but there is also a strong sense of intimacy, and McDonough’s characteristic affection for his subjects is ever present. McDonough has often said that the fleeting intimacy of the moment with his subjects has been an extremely seductive and satisfying part of taking pictures. In Sight Seeing, we become the beneficiaries of that intimacy.