Photographer Malcolm Pinckney credits his morning green tea for motivating him as he recently reached 50 years since he started snapping and shooting for the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation (NYC Parks). Oh, and also a love for the job.
“To be good at anything, be the best of anything, you have to live and sleep it and eat it,” he told the AmNews.
Pinckney was born in a segregated South Carolina, but later arrived in New York City, attending his first integrated school in Brooklyn before enrolling at the now-defunct Haaren High on 59th Street. There, he became curious about how an image could appear on paper and later studied photography, but boasted an initial interest in electronics. He originally repaired broken TVs and radios for “little old ladies,” but ultimately pivoted.
“The industry was changing from vacuum tubes to transistors [and] the courses didn’t match up with what I learned in high school,” said Pinckney. “So I made the switch totally to photography, and from there that really helped me propel into a job doing photography in parks.”
Back in 1975, Pinckney started out in the Bronx where he worked in the City Department of Parks & Recreation. As Pinckney’s photos developed, so did he. “It was a godsend, because I had actually a darkroom to work out of and hone my skills,” he said. “And while I was taking courses, it actually helped me get the grades that I did get.”
Taking some breaks in between, including running his own business and working as a park ranger, Pinckney ultimately came back in 1985. The rest was history, quite literally. Pinckney is responsible for officially capturing New York City throughout the years from Mayor David Dinkins to the Fort Tryon Park honeybees. Few days go by without someone reaching out hoping he captured a tender moment or lost memory from one of the city’s more than 1,700 green spaces.
“People don’t understand why documentation is so important to record history as it happens,” said Pinckney. “In this job, especially here at parks, somebody’s always calling for something that happened years ago, they might have had their newborn at that event, and they want to see if we have a picture [or] to go back and look at what life was like back then. That type of thing.”
As camera technology evolved over the decades, Pinckney remained abreast thanks to his past electronics background. He recalls seeing digital photos from the fall of the Berlin Wall back when film was the standard. “Time went by and different administrations change, and the need got greater,” said Pinckney. “We were able to purchase decent digital cameras so we could be equal [to] private industry.”
Today, he is a husband, dad, and grandfather. The apple doesn’t fall from the tree: his daughter is a videographer and his son is a parkie, as well as a musician. And his wife serves as commissioner of Mt. Vernon’s Recreation Department.
But photography still remains much of Pinckney’s life after all these years. Beyond his NYC Parks work, he has also snapped freelance for a laundry list of publications and institutions including for the AmNews. When asked about what else he does outside of photography, he cracks a laugh. “Not much,” Pinckney said. “Photography is all I do.”
Your dedication to helping others really shows in all the work you create 💎