The Lookout

New Yorker searches for owner of remarkable blizzard photos

The Lookout

January 19, 2011 at 2:53 p.m.

A New Yorker who writes and directs comedy videos is on a quest to find the people who shot a roll of striking black-and-white photos of the city that he found in a park.

Todd Bieber stumbled upon the roll of film while cross-country skiing in Brooklyn's Prospect Park after the Christmas blizzard that dumped 12 to 18 inches of snow in the area. Bieber developed the film and was captivated by the photos, which show what he surmises to be some out-of-towners taking a snowy and beautiful journey from Central Park, across the Brooklyn Bridge to an empty Coney Island amusement park, and then to Prospect Park, where they must have accidentally dropped the film canister.

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Bieber made a video that he hopes will help him track down the people who took the photos. He notes that the men look "European" in their photos (giveaway: fancy scarves) and imagines that they are visiting New York on a vacation. In one photo, they're shown having a snowball fight.

Bieber tells the Lookout he's still going through the hundreds of YouTube comments and emails from people who are trying to help him identify the men. Dozens of people have said one of the men (below) may be Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi, though we at the Lookout have our doubts. "Everybody's so excited to be a part of the process that they're looking for clues," he says.

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Numerous online outlets have picked up the images to aid Bieber in his quest; as Time magazine noted in its post, the photographers' loss is now "the world's gain: the beautiful photos are now going viral, being shared and forwarded by thousands (and soon, perhaps, millions). And with any luck, the original photographers will again be reunited with their impressive portfolio."

Bieber's asking anyone who recognizes the people in the photos to email him at brooklynfoundfilm@gmail.com.

[Photos: Explorers find spectacular caves in Vietnam]

You can see the photos in Bieber's video below:

(Screenshots from Bieber's video.)