Neal Boenzi

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Neal Boenzi (November 15, 1925 – April 3, 2023) was an American photojournalist who worked for the New York Times. He was born in South Brooklyn, New York, as one of five children. His father was a plumber and his mother made artificial flower bouquets at home. Boenzi left college to serve in the U.S. Marines during World War II. After the war, he joined the Times in 1946 as an office boy and soon began taking photos; he became a staff photographer in 1955.

He left the Times in 1991 after the paper decided to move toward computer work. Boenzi had two children, Jeanette (born 1951) and John (born 1954). He died on April 3, 2023, in Santa Clarita, California.

Boenzi was active in the New York Press Photographers Association and won third place in their 1973 contest for feature photography, honoring the best New York photographs of 1972.

One of his famous images shows New York City's 1966 smog, shot from the Empire State Building looking south. That photo was used as the cover art for Vampire Weekend’s 2013 album Modern Vampires of the City.

Colleagues praised him. Editor Nancy Lee called him “one of the best photographers who ever walked through the doors of The New York Times” in 2010. In 2013 some of his photos were featured in the Vintage Boenzi exhibit in Manhattan. A 2015 Juxtapoz article described him as inventive, charismatic and empathetic, noting his photographs of former mayor Ed Koch as among the best. Koch kept a 1979 Boenzi photo in his office, which had appeared on the Times front page on June 13, 1979.