The Bowery — © Brian Rose
Without comment.
Archive for November, 2011
New York/Lower East Side
New York/WTC
Greenwich Street near the World Trade Center (4×5 negative) — © Brian Rose
I’ve been catching up on scanning recent 4×5 negatives from the Bowery and the World Trade Center, my two current projects. The image above was made a few months ago and was taken a couple of blocks from ground zero. A fence displays the list of names of those killed on 9/11–The Heroes of September 11, 2001 it reads–and the steel containers behind hold contractor offices or equipment storage related to the nearby construction site. The names are now found at the completed 9/11 memorial, etched in stone.
Closeup from image above — © Brian Rose
It is an image that I find particularly satisfying–the multiplicity of layers, materials, colors–a telling detail, the 9/11 list, that gives larger context and raison d’etre. The emptiness of the streets seems almost unreal in such a densely built place. It’s not a photograph I’d likely take with a small camera–or at least thinking through the medium of a small camera. It is an image made with the assumption that details will read even when printed large, or especially when printed large. The computer screen gives only an impression of what would be there in a higher resolution print.
Please click through to larger images.
New York/Lower East Side/East Village
New York/Houston Street
Houston and Bowery with Keith Haring re-creation, 2008 — © Brian Rose
A year ago I discovered the origins of the Houston/Bowery wall, a slab of concrete that hosts a regularly changing display of graffiti and street art in various media. The wall always seemed odd to me because it was free standing and stood a couple of feet away from the party wall of the building behind it. Where did it come from?
Ray Salyer in On the Bowery, handball court behind
The answer came on a visit to Film Forum when I saw the great quasi-documentary film On the Bowery made in 1957 by Lionel Rogosin. In one of the scenes, Ray Salyer, the main character waits with a group of Bowery men looking to be picked up for day labor. Behind him a game of handball is being played against a detached wall, unmistakably the same wall that survives today, except that it is now encased in a more expansive and user-friendly surface. But underneath, the handball court wall remains.
Opening scene from Martin Scorcese’s Who’s That Knocking at My Door, 1967
Last week while putting together a slide show of Lower East Side images for a class I am teaching, I came across a video of the opening scene of Martin Scorcese’s first feature film Who’s That Knocking at My Door made in 1967. It’s a street brawl–a choreographed violent dance–played out on the corner of Houston and Bowery in front of, you guessed it, the former handball wall, now graffiti wall.
Houston and Bowery, mural by Faile, 2011 — © Brian Rose
As you can see in the film and in the photograph above, Houston Street was widened after 1957 and the distance from the street to the wall was reduced. So, it turns out this lowly urban artifact has quite a distinguished pedigree, not only as the canvas for the current series of murals, but as an architectural extra in two classics of American cinema.
New York/Bryant Park
Bryant Park, 42nd and Sixth Avenue — © Brian Rose
Bryant Park, 42nd and Sixth Avenue — © Brian Rose
Etherial and material in Midtown.
New York/The Bowery
At Think Coffee on the Bowery — © Brian Rose
Thoughts over breakfast this morning–cognitive dissonance department.
Mario Batali, celebrated chef and restaurateur at a Time person of the year event:
“The way the bankers have toppled the way that money is distributed, and taken most of it into their own hands,” Mr. Batali said, “is as good as Stalin or Hitler, the evil guys” whom Time named Man of the Year long ago, Stalin in 1942, Hitler in 1938.
The internet lit up with indignation from Wall Street: ”Cancel all reservations at Batali’s eateries, including Babbo and Del Posto.” Yet another wrote, “Done with Batali restaurants.”
Article here.
–
Meanwhile at Occupy Wall Street David Crosby and Graham Nash performed a five song set at Zuccotti Park. From a mostly snarky NYT article:
When the concert ended, to protracted cheers and vigorous finger-waggling, an oft-used signal of appreciation inside the park, Ms. Mandaglio spoke of the thrill of seeing a favorite group from a bygone era. She was asked what song of theirs she liked best. “The one they were playing before,” she said, taking a long drag on a cigarette as she dangled the sunflower between her fingers.
But she was not the best person to ask, Ms. Mandaglio added. She was really more of a Bob Dylan fan.
–
And at Penn State University in response to the firing of famed football coach Joe Paterno and the forced resignation of the university president, students rioted overnight in downtown State College, Pennsylvania. Never mind that the ousters were the result of a grave mishandling of child sexual abuse.
Some blew vuvuzelas, others air horns. One young man sounded reveille on a trumpet. Four girls in heels danced on the roof of a parked sport utility vehicle and dented it when they fell after a group of men shook the vehicle. A few, like Justin Muir, 20, a junior studying hotel and restaurant management, threw rolls of toilet paper into the trees.
Article here.
–
New York/The Bowery
The Bowery and Great Jones Street — © Brian Rose
An auto repair holdout in the midst of increasing opulence on the northern end of the Bowery. A beautiful, mild, November day, I decided to go out with my view camera and just work this corner. Was there about an hour and shot four or five different views including the one above–this a digital snapshot version.
New York/Midtown
Grace Plaza, ICP Education entrance, West 43rd and Sixth Avenue – © Brian Rose
I snapped this picture while leaving ICP after a session of my class Photographing New York: The Lower East Side. The students are photographing the neighborhood, and we will be creating a book from their work using Blurb, the online photo book service.
As for my own book Time and Space on the Lower East Side, we have just about finished the layout, and I am finalizing the images in Photoshop as well as making prints that can be used by the printer as a color guide. Today I spent most of the day sending out emails regarding my Kickstarter fundraising campaign. I am now 85% of the way to my goal with five days to go.
The Kickstarter project page is here.
Donate $50 to pre-order Time and Space on the Lower East Side. For $250 you can get the limited edition slipcover book–only 100 to be printed.
–
UPDATE– Goal Reached!
Today, I reached 100% of my funding goal for Time and Space on the Lower East Side. I am grateful to all of you who donated–all of you who value independent photo books, who love New York and the Lower East Side, and who are making this book possible.
The reality is that few established publishers are willing to take on projects like this. Especially in these economic times. We, artists and those who support the arts, have to step up and make things happen ourselves. The $10,000 raised is only a part of the total cost of making a book of this quality. So, any further donations over the remaining five days of the campaign will be greatly appreciated.
The production of Time and Space is well underway. The sequencing of the photos and the text are complete, and the graphic designer is fine tuning the layout. Suzanne Vega has contributed the books’s forward–it’s very cool–you’ll enjoy it. The book will go to the printer in the next few weeks, and if all goes well, Time and Space will be out in the first part of 2012.
Thank you and hope to see lots of you when the book is launched!
Special thanks to the following blogs: EV Grieve, Curbed, and The Low-Down.
And thanks to Suzanne Vega and Kristin Ellington for their FB posts and spreading the word.
