The book "The Eyes of the City" published by powerHouse Books showcases street photographer and filmmaker Richard Sandler's images from the streets of New York and Boston between the years 1977-2001.

From 1977 to just weeks before September 11, 2001, Richard regularly walked through the streets of Boston and New York, making incisive and humorous pictures that read the pulse of that time. After serendipitously being gifted a Leica camera in 1977, Sandler shot in Boston for three productive years and then moved back home to photograph in an edgy, dangerous, colicky New York City.

In the 1980s crime and crack were on the rise and their effects were socially devastating. Times Square, Harlem, and the East Village were seeded with hard drugs, while in Midtown Manhattan, and on Wall Street, the rich flaunted their furs in unprecedented numbers, and "greed was good."

In the 1990s the city underwent drastic changes to lure in tourists and corporations, the result of which was rapid gentrification. Rents were raised and neighborhoods were sanitized, clearing them of both crime and character. Throughout these turbulent and creative years Sandler paced the streets with his native New Yorker's eye for compassion, irony, and unvarnished fact.

Read More: Watch the Rare 1981 Documentary About New York Street Photographer Joel Meyerowitz

You find additional images from the book at Time Magazine and The Guardian.

Via Hyperallergic.

Featured image: Grand Central Terminal, NYC, 1990 by Richard Sandler / The Eyes of the City.