From January 1976 until May 1976 I worked as a taxi driver for City Taxi in Binghamton, NY. I had previously worked as a taxi driver in Binghamton in 1972 after dropping out of Harpur College (SUNY Binghamton), first for City Taxi and then the Yellow Cab Company. I moved to Rochester, NY in 1974 to play in a band. In 1976 I left the band, ended a relationship with my partner, photographer Melitte Buchman, and enrolled in a couple of evening photography courses at RIT. I decided to drive taxi again in Binghamton for a photo project, documenting fellow drivers and customers. I attended classes Monday through Wednesday in Rochester, and traveled to Binghamton to drive taxi on weekends.

I rode the Greyhound to Binghamton and upon exiting the bus, bumped into Eddie Howard, the owner of City Taxi, hustling customers for his cabs waiting outside the terminal. “Hey PT (short for “ponytail”, the moniker he gave me when I first drove for him in 1972), what are you doing back in Binghamton”. I explained that I was going to drive taxi part time at Yellow Cab, but on the spot he offered me a job at City Taxi, and I took him up on it.

City Taxi clientele and drivers were decidedly poorer working class folks, and some drivers and customers were gay. I was raised with a middle class upbringing but I was a good fit within the community that made up the City Taxi family as it were. I drove for about a month and got reacquainted with my fellow drivers and customers, then I started carrying my camera with me. I would explain that I was documenting City Taxi and request permission to photograph my subject or subjects, and I cannot recall ever being denied.

Most customers were known to me only by their street address, 124 Leroy St., 431 Chenango St., or 142 Pennsylvania Ave., and many of these customers would have the cab sent at the same time every evening, as did “Steady Eddie” who you would pick up every night at a bar on Robinson St. and deliver him home. These are the people of City Taxi.