Anton sells photographs on Fifth Avenue and 81st Street in front of the museum. He arrives at his spot at nine o'clock in the morning six days a week - the Metropolitan Museum of Art is closed on Mondays and so the sidewalks are just too empty for business.

The photographs come from the eye, camera and studio of Alex Leykin, who like Anton, is an immigrant from Russia. Alex has been in New York for 11 years and takes wonderful pictures of the city, capturing its lonesome and peaceful, black-and-white side.

"March 6th, 1997 I arrived," Anton says. He has blue eyes that shimmer like the sky on this late-July heat-wave day. "I had no English. I could say maybe 'Yes' and 'No' and 'Thank you.'" When he first came to New York, Anton worked in a body shop for six months before becoming involved with Alex and the photographs.

A man with one umbrella hat on his head and one in his hand suddenly appears, shouting like the hot dog and beer vendors at Yankee Stadium. He sees someone he knows and interrupts his spiel to say hello. "It's real, it's a real thing goin' on!" he says and continues on his way down the street. He takes his place in the sun, out of the shadows cast by the big leafy trees, where the picture-sellers are, and once again begins to shout to the crowds. The sunnier spots are better for selling sun-blocking hats, for obvious reasons. The photograph stands are underneath the trees so people can linger and look.

Anton sells the photographs to support himself while he studies computer technology. He wants to design Internet sites. Right now he's working on his first one, sort of a test run. "Every day I work on it a little. It is nothing of interest right now, but it is coming." He is educating himself. "I buy books, and I read books, I teach myself. I count on myself." He lives alone in a rented room in Bensonhurst and dreams his own dreams.»