Photograph by Olivio Barbieri Innovation is difficult to achieve in photography, particularly if one remains rooted in the descriptive side of the medium. There has never been a requirement, of course, that one stick to what is sometimes called “straight photography.” And from the get go, photographers have used the medium to create alternate realities–staged […]

E1st Street — © Brian Rose Bicycles.

E1st Street — © Brian Rose Stanton Street — © Brian Rose Walking around the neighborhood.

WTC  book cover — © Brian Rose WTC is now available for purchase. Call it a soft opening, I will be sending out books to key editors and individuals, and will endeavor to gradually get the word out. I will certainly do an announcement at my Lower East Side slide talk on March 29. Scroll […]

Book cover with images by Bill Owens and Joe Deal Final comments on Mark’s Rice’s Lens of the City, NEA Photography Survey of the 70s. I was a participant in one of these surveys in 1981. Scroll down for other posts. Much of the book is spent exploring the art/documentary dichotomy, which was highly controversial […]

Sol Moscot Opticians, Orchard Street — © Brian Rose Without comment.

This is still a ways off, so this is an early alert.  I’m planning to step through the book, reading short text pieces, and sharing observations and anecdotes. I will have a limited number of books for sale, and plan to use the occasion to announce my new WTC book. I will, of course, be available […]

Cooper Square (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose The small federal-style building at center dating from the early 19th century may not stand much longer. It is now surrounded by scaffolding, and demolition of the roof has begun. The city has just issued a stop work order, but my guess is that it will only […]

Dorothea Lange photographs, the Museum of Modern Art — © Brian Rose I’ve been reading Through the Lens of the City, NEA Photography Surveys of the 1970s by Mark Rice. A few comments mid-stream. The NEA survey grants were an outgrowth of a proposal championed by Walter Mondale to commemorate the U.S. bicentennial by commissioning […]

Wall Street, 1981 (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose Although I’ve been posting photographs of the World Trade Center made in 1981, I also did lots of photographs of Lower Manhattan that did not include the constantly looming Twin Towers. And not all were sweeping views of the skyline like so many of the images […]

Museum of Modern Art — © Brian Rose Robert Mapplethorpe, Laurie Anderson, General Idea, and random museum visitor.

Maiden Lane from the FDR Drive, 1981 — © Brian Rose/Ed Fausty Google street view of Maiden Lane from the FDR Drive In the previous post I began discussing Through the Lens of the City, NEA Photography Surveys of the 1970s by Mark Rice. From 1978 to 1981 the National Endowment for the Arts funded […]

Trinity churchyard (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose The images of the World Trade Center recently posted were not made as a specific project to photograph the Twin Towers and the WTC complex. They come from a more comprehensive look at Lower Manhattan that I did with Ed Fausty in 1981 and 1982. Ed and […]

Berry Street and N7th, Williamsburg, Brooklyn — © Brian Rose Had a very pleasant visit with Yancey Richardson, the photo gallery owner. Met with folks from the Lower East Side BID (business improvement district). Productive discussion about a possible LES exhibition.