West 29th Street — © Brian Rose

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The Manhattan Bridge, 1908 — photography by Eugene de Salignac

The city of New York recently made its huge archive of photographs available online. I’ve spent a little time browsing through the pictures, which include the most mundane tax photos along with quite stirring images like the one above. For several weeks the website was down–I think due to high traffic–but it seems to be up and running now. It’s a great resource, theoretically, but it has an awkward interface and is hard to navigate. Sadly, a majority of the images can only be viewed at very low resolution. You can order high resolution files or have prints made. Municipal Archives website here.

The image above was taken from a more detailed image provided to the media. It shows the Manhattan Bridge under construction in 1908. The image is one of 20,000 images taken by Eugene de Salignac, a city employee, unknown until a few years ago. Since then, there has been an exhibition of his work at the Museum of the City of New York, and a book by Aperture.

From the New Yorker:

De Salignac, it turned out, had worked for the Department of Bridges (later the Department of Plant and Structures) from 1903 to 1934. Vast reaches of infrastructure were laid down in those years, and his job was to provide a record: he shot the construction of the Manhattan and Queensboro Bridges and the Municipal Building; subway tunnels, trolley lines, and ferries.

There’s a terrific portfolio of de Salignac’s images and others from the city archive in The Atlantic here.

Pike’s Slip and the Manhattan Bridge, 1980 — © Brian Rose/Ed Fausty

When Ed Fausty and I did our photographs of the Lower East Side we were unaware of de Salignac, but we, nevertheless, found ourselves standing in almost the same spot–72 years later–as he did when photographing the Manhattan Bridge. Both are view camera images, but the latter exhibits a somewhat different way of looking at the city. The bridge is no longer a central and heroic symbol of progress, however imposing, as it soars over a desolate street corner in 1980. The bridge and the service station have nearly equal weight, structural elements intersect and slash across the frame, as the late afternoon sun spotlights the Texaco star.

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Main Post Office building at West 31st Street and  8th Avenue — © Brian Rose

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42nd Street near Times Square — © Brian Rose

Times Square is not the tawdry danger zone of the past–a delicious feast for the eyes, a hellish tourist trap–42nd Street a ghoulish gantlet of porn for commuters rushing to the Port Authority bus terminal, an underworld of prostitutes, teenage runaways, pickpockets, and do-gooder preachers leaching off the whole bloody mess. Ah, those were the days.

The tourists remain, more pastel present than ever, discovering their own faux New York. The nostalgia whiners are correct–the present is never as cool, never as rich and creamy as the past–but they too easily miss the buzz of the present. If you’re going to be a photographer–one who bears witness to this time–you can’t wallow in the gauzy, yellowy instagrammatic  glow of the past. You’ve got to be here, now.

Enjoy. Have a gelato.

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East River Park — © Brian Rose

Yesterday, I heard that my books are in the port of New York and are in the process of clearing customs. The books should be in my storage space in the next few days. I’ll be sending books first to my Kickstarter backers, and then begin distributing to local stores. The slipcovers are coming separately, so there may be a delay in getting the limited editions out. Time and Space will also be available online on my website and at photo-eye. Launch party coming up on May 23rd. See below for details:

Time and Space on the Lower East Side
Book Launch Party

Wednesday, May 23 • 6:00-8:00 PM
Clic Bookstore and Gallery, 255 Centre Street (at Broome)
212-966-2766
•••
Books will be available for purchase and signing.
•••
Please join us in celebrating the publication of this unique and beautiful book.

Time and Space Web Page

Clic Website

•••

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N3rd Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn — © Brian Rose

Bags of PBR (Pabst Blue Ribbon) and Carling Black Label, cheap hipster beers, after another Wlliamsburg weekend.

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Launch party on Maya 23rd at Clic Gallery and Bookstore. I will be sending invitations and making announcements shortly.

Second Avenue and 6th Street — © Brian Rose

East 6th Street between Cooper Square and Second Avenue — © Brian Rose

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Second Avenue — © Brian Rose

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Times Square — © Brian Rose

Central Park — © Brian Rose

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The New Museum from Reina’s Garden — © Brian Rose

Behind my building on Stanton Street just off the Bowery is Reina’s Garden. The garden was once occupied by a rear tenement–two structures occupied the 25×100 foot lot with a narrow courtyard in between. In the 19th and early 20th century the courtyard would have held privies, trash containers, coal bins, etc. The rear building was torn down years ago, and the front building stood abandoned when in 1992 the city decided to rehabilitate it. When I moved into the newly fixed-up building, the rear yard was a lush green carpet of sod. Unfortunately, the contractor hadn’t prepared the ground under the sod–no topsoil–only the rubble of the old rear tenement lay underneath. The grass died, and for at least a decade the yard was brick-strewn mess.

A few years ago a neighbor took it upon herself to maintain this 25×25 patch of New York City real estate. It’s a pretty modest affair as gardens go, but I think it is beautiful. Not much sunlight makes it into Reina’s Garden. The silvery New Museum towers over it to the west, and the wall behind is formed by 195 Chrystie, an eight story loft building filled with artists and small companies, which once housed a fledgling band, The Talking Heads. In Reina’s Garden the chain link and brick, the graffiti and the ivy, conspire to form their own kind of sublime music.

Reina’s Garden — © Brian Rose

Reina’s Garden — © Brian Rose

Reina’s Garden — © Brian Rose

Reina’s Garden — © Brian Rose

Reina’s Garden — © Brian Rose

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Prinsengracht near the Noodermarkt, Amsterdam (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose

Almere, a suburb of Amsterdam (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose

I’ve been doing some renovation of my website portfolio. The two pictures above are from a major upgrade of my Amsterdam on Edge series.

From the accompanying text:

For 15 years I lived in the center of Amsterdam, the famous urban village of canals and bicycles. It was a great life style environment, but it did not interest me much as a subject for photography. What could I add or subtract from this idyll of urban seamlessness? Even the red light district appeared tame, and cozily contained. But I eventually found rougher edges of the city along stretches of the once bustling waterfront, and I discovered the new neighborhoods on the periphery, the playgrounds of Dutch planners and architects. This was clearly where the action was.

The first photograph was taken in the old canal district of Amsterdam and sets the stage for an exploration of the city that few visitors ever see. American tourists–especially–have a grossly distorted image of the city. It is both better and worse than the clichéd image most hold onto–infinitely more interesting and complex. Forget the drugs and prostitution meme. It’s tiresome, and blinds one to the what is really going on.

The second photo was taken in Almere, a new town in the polder, drained land, on the outskirts of Amsterdam. Although the landscape of the Netherlands is notably horizontal, punctuated by windmills and church spires, urban development tends to be vertical. Not tall as in skyscrapers, but narrow lots and skinny buildings standing shoulder to shoulder with exaggeratedly steep stairs, even in the newest houses. The Netherlands has plenty of planned sprawl, but it is denser than the typical American suburb. And although you see more historic architectural references these days, many of these communities flaunt their cutting edge design, theme parks of the new, as it were, even as they fulfill the most plebeian function as middle class shelter.

Amsterdam on Edge

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Time and Space on the Lower East Side — © Brian Rose

Update on the book. The printing and binding are complete, and I am waiting–impatiently–for a container to arrive from Germany, where the book was printed. I have a handful of copies that I am taking around and showing. I know that my Kickstarter backers are eager to get their books. I’ve got a half dozen bookstores lined up to sell books, and it will also be available on my website and from photo-eye. And I am working on another possible slide talk.

Book launch party May 23 at Clic Gallery in lower Manhattan! Details soon.

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Videographer being arrested for recording Suffolk County, New York, police activity.

Returning to a recurring topic on this blog, the increasing harassment of photographers by police and private security. This comes by way of PDN, the Photo District News, and shows an egregious, but all too frequent, example of police ignorance of the constitution (in spite of this officer’s claim to 30 years of experience). I am putting this up  because it is important that people understand that this kind of thing is going on routinely. Usually, the result is the photographer backing off to avoid arrest–a good idea most of the time–but a de facto trampling of one’s rights. Every time I go out with my camera–especially the view camera–I worry that I will find myself in such a confrontation with authority.

Despite the charges being dismissed–which is what usually happens when these things go to court–the videographer has chosen to sue for violation of his constitutional rights, and the New York Civil Liberties Union is supporting his case. Please consider, as I do, financially supporting the NYCLU or the ACLU.

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Houston Street — © Brian Rose

Easter in New York.

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One World Trade Center — © Brian Rose

Today I was shooting an architectural interior on lower Broadway with a view from the 25th floor of One World Trade Center. They have a stunning view of the tower and the construction of the transportation center in the foreground. I shot two frames with a 24mm tilt/shift lens–one above the other–and stitched them together in Photoshop. The dark building to the left is the Millennium Hilton, the tower at right is 7 WTC. I understand that 1 WTC is now about four floors from its full height. The entire structure, however, will be much taller once its 408 foot spire is mounted on top.

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Presenting Time and Space on the Lower East Side at the Duo Theater — © Bill Diodato

My publisher, Bill Diodato, on his blog here with comments and additional photos.

And Stan Banos here on his blog Reciprocity Failure.

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Orchard Street 1909

Throughout working on my Lower East Side project, I have been aware of the rich photographic history attached to the neighborhood. Turn of the century photographers like Lewis Hine and Jacob Riis established the image of the LES as a place of hardship and corruption in need of social reform. Later, Berenice Abbot photographed the streetscape and architecture while Helen Levitt focused on life in the streets. Rebecca Lepkoff  vividly, if somewhat sentimentally, chronicled Jewish culture, and Nan Goldin revealed the interior lives of a generation of  artists and musicians. There are many others who have contributed to this history in myriad ways.

But the dominant visual icon of the Lower East Side has always been similar to the photo above: a teaming street full of pushcarts and wayward children, a solid wall of tenements receding into the distance hung with fire escapes and signage, a vibrant scene of urban life, however physically poor and begrimed. This photograph comes from the Detroit Publishing Company by way of the blog Shorpy, one of my favorite places to visit on the internet, which features high resolution historic photographs found in the public domain.

Orchard Street 1980 — © Brian Rose/Ed Fausty

The picture above that Ed Fausty and I did in 1980 strongly echoes the 1909 image. It’s the same corner except looking the opposite direction taken on a Sunday when Orchard is closed to vehicular traffic. I was aware of the homage when we took it, though I doubt that I had seen the exact picture shown above. There are a number of others, not much different. On the one hand, I was obsessed with doing something new, using color film to create a portrait of a place in a way not seen before. On the other hand, I wanted to connect to the history of photography, especially as it pertained to the Lower East Side itself. This image of Orchard Street, as much as any in my new book Time and Space on the Lower East Side, is a bridge to that past.

Last night I unveiled Time and Space at the Duo Theater on East 4th Street. There were about 80 people there, a full house, and I was pleased to see some familiar faces, some of whom were surprises. I noticed there was a contingent of Kickstarter backers, the people who helped raise the money to do the book. My publisher, Bill Diodato was there, and I was especially happy to see Alex Harsley, photographer and host of the 4th Street Photo Gallery, whom Time and Space is dedicated to.

Here is a snippet of video from the evening off of an iPhone:

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Williamsburg, Brooklyn — © Brian Rose

This evening I will be introducing my book Time and Space on the Lower East Side. I believe there is a waiting list for seats, but my guess is that there will be some cancellations. So, it’s worth a try getting in touch with the sponsor if you’d still like to go. Hope to see you there.

Here is the link.

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