Ted Croner was an American photographer and, like Saul Leiter and Ruth Orkin, was an influential member of the New York School during the 1940s and 1950s. His dynamic photographs often show or represent compositional movement.

The New York School of Photography refers to a loosely defined group of photographers who lived and worked in New York City during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s sharing influences, subjects and stylistic earmarks. These photographers captured life in New York not as “the big city,” but as a collection of neighborhoods, people, and emotions that would later define what we now consider top of mind when thinking about the nostalgic way New York used to be.

Ted Croner’s images are often haunting. He chose to shoot the city at night, during snowstorms, or generally at its most vulnerable moments. These photographs showcase the loneliness one can feel when living in a city so vast it swallows many people up.

Ted Croner was born in Baltimore in 1922 and raised in North Carolina. Croner developed an interest in photography while still in high school. He honed his skills while serving as an aerial photographer in World War II before settling in New York City in 1947. At the urging of fashion photographer Fernand Fonssagrives, he enrolled in Alexey Brodovitch’s class at the New School where he studied with such notable photographers as Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon and Lisette Model. It was during this period that he produced many of his most memorable images including the iconic “Taxi, New York Night, 1947–48” which appears on the cover of Bob Dylan’s 2006 album, Modern Times. Another one of Croner’s photographs appears on the cover of “Penthouse“, the second album from the NYC band Luna. I absolutely love his photography. They capture a bygone era in New York City that we all wish we could have seen, thanks, in part, to Croner and his contemporaries.

Take a look at some of his gorgeous work below.