Someone was going to make this shot and I always felt we had a chance to bring all the constituent parts together. We have some history with ideas based on Scorsese’s epic film and the fact that I once worked on Wall Street added a sense of purpose as well as a personal connection.
Made of white Georgian marble, the temple-like facade of the NY Stock Exchange Building was inspired by the Roman Pantheon and the six Corinthian columns make for a majestic backdrop. It is an unmistakable building and when it opened its doors in 1903, it was a big moment in the history of America.
I needed a quiet day to shoot on set and that always pointed to a Sunday, but I also wanted an emphatic written reference as well as the architectural reference somewhere in the frame. The green street signposts of “Wall Street” were too high to incorporate meaningfully into the picture and I saw no real workable alternative. I sensed it really was a bridge too far to be able to include the words Wall Street and I recognised that, as always, I was being a bit visually greedy. I had no depth of field on my camera and so any sign with Wall Street on it had to be as close to the camera as the wolf, or the letters would be a blur. But by some extraordinary stroke of luck, when I found my shooting location lying on the cobbled street, there, smack in front of me on the road, was a museum plate that spoke of Wall Street’s history. I had no idea it was there and at the margin this detail makes all the difference.
This was not an easy shot, but we got there and to the best of my knowledge, we got there first.