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The lost, intimate work of photographer Robert Frank. Uncovered, candid and perfect.
From The New York Times (Lens Blog): In 1958, the promotions department of The New York Times hired a young Swiss expat to take pictures that were collected in a slim hardcover book for prospective advertisers. The book, “New York Is,” extolled the virtues of the city and of the newspaper as the best way to tap its prosperous postwar consumers.
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Thank you, Allan Tannenbaum for documenting what looked to be a magical time. You saw it all …live.
Dirty, dangerous, and destitute. This was New York City in the 1970s. The 1960s were not yet over, and war still raged in Viet Nam, fueling resentment against the government. Nixon and the Watergate scandal created even more resentment, cynicism, and skepticism. Economically, stagnation coupled with inflation created a sense of malaise. The Arab Oil Embargo of 1973 delivered another blow to the U.S. economy, and brought the misery of long lines to buy gasoline. Conditions in Harlem and Bed-Stuy were horrendous, with abandoned buildings and widespread poverty. The subways were covered everywhere with ugly graffiti and they were unreliable. It seemed as if the entire infrastructure was in decay. Political corruption, sloppy accounting, and the cost of the war were killing the city. Times Square, the crossroads of the world, was seedy and sleazy. Pimps, hookers, and drug dealers owned the night there. Crime was rampant, and the police were powerless to stop it. Random killings by the “Son of Sam” made New Yorkers even more fearful. The parks were in decay, with litter and bare lawns, and it was home to muggers and rapists. When the proud City of New York had to beg the Federal Government for a financial bail-out, the President said no. The Daily News headline said it all: “Ford to City – Drop Dead.”
-New York In The 70′s by Allan Tannenbaum (the book).
(photos: © Allan Tannenbaum and original posting found on The Selvedge Yard)
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February must be New York photo month (in my mind). I just stumbled across Greenwich Village Daily Photo; more of modern day NYC flavor.
More delicious old photos of the 1970-80s are on Matt Weber’s site.
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Whoa; midtown and uptown storefronts signs, ye’ neon and font signs of old. This site is a little archival gem.
The multi-talented New Yorker Jorge Colombo steps up his game with his NY1x1 tumblr (a small sampling of images below).
Boys Don’t Cry as shown by the looks of these Bruce Davidson photos of a New York street gang in 1959. These make the Outsiders look almost fabricated or recycled as art imitates life and vice versa. (*source: Flavorwire).
Stanley Kubrick’s photos of the 1940′s; gritty realism, composition and lighting.”He shot on the sly, often times his camera concealed in a paper bag with a hole in it. Of the some odd 10 000 black and white photographs he took while working at the magazine, VandM chose a total of 25, which have now been made available as prints.” (via: mash Culture)
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A newly arrived immigrant eats noodles on a fire escape, NYC / USA.
Taiwan native Chien-Chi Chang documented the plight of illegal immigrants in New York’s Chinatown, and returned, with several of his subjects, to photograph family members left behind in rural China.“I have an emotional stake in ‘Divided Lives,’” Chang wrote of the project. Before coming to the U.S. in 1991, he had heard endless stories about New York’s immigrant community. “I discovered a different reality where many Chinese were delivered at great personal sacrifice into a life of indentured servitude, fear and extortion.” (source: lagu)
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“The Photo League students take their camera anywhere . . . they want to tell us about New York and some of the people who live there . . . there was almost a sense of desperation in the desire to convey messages of sociological import.” - Beaumont Newhall, 1948
At The Jewish Museum (November 04, 2011 – March 25, 2012)
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Summer, Beach, Playground, Boy Scouts, Hazing Air, Slides, Stoops, Graffiti, Brownstones, never doubt New York.
“Photographer Danny Lyon spent two months snapping pictures of the daily life in the borough — exploring Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Fort Green and Park Slope among other neighborhoods” (more photos here)
Friends: Photographer David Leventi gets it. It’s the quiet New York, a bit clean, but still neon and coloured. From dusk til dawn; the city that never sleeps. I like to think of each of his shots as a story; I have about a dozen for both Odeon; maybe six for Schillers and the Empire State Building holds its own….
