Clayton Patterson, the documentarian of the Lower East Side, whose raw videos of the Tompkins Square Park riots of 1988, brought him to prominence, has decided to quit New York for the Austrian spa town of Bad Ischl. Okay… A few choice quotes from the article in the New York Times: “There’s nothing left for […]

The Kickstarter campaign for my Meatpacking book is now over with 163% of my goal reached. Now we can take that posh vacation in the Caribbean that we’ve been dreaming about all through this — barely over — snowy winter in New York. No, no, no. Just a joke. The money raised only pays for […]

At the bottom of the article: … there are still a few more days left to donate to Brian Rose’s Kickstarter campaign. He’s raising money to fund his book of fantastic Meatpacking District photos from 1985 and 2013. Good old Jeremiah over at Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York wrote the preface.  

I will be teaching a class at ICP this spring called Photographing New York: The Lower East Side. Each student will photograph some aspect of the neighborhood, and the class will put together a book using Blurb, the print on demand web platform. It’s a lot of fun, for me and the students, but it’s […]

An interview in the blog, Bowery Boogie. BB: What do you hope people will take away from Metamorphosis? BR: More than anything I hope that people will learn to see what is around them and in front of them everyday – the city hidden in plain sight. Read the whole thing here.  

Photograph from Time and Space on the Lower East Side in the New York Times — © Brian Rose One of the photographs from Time and Space on the Lower East Side appeared in the Sunday New York Times . 50 years ago a number of blocks of densely occupied tenement housing along Delancey Street […]

Place Saint-André-des-Arts, c. 1865 — Charles Marville I went to the Metropolitan Museum last weekend to see the Charles Marville show, the photographer who documented Paris during the time of urban planner Baron George-Eugène Haussmann. Haussmann, under the supervision of Napoleon III, razed large sections of the old city in order to create the grand […]

Metamorphosis: Meatpacking District 1985 + 2013, back cover image — © Brian Rose 1985 Reached my Kickstarter goal — again. Yesterday, I announced that I had succeeded in my fundraising goal, and began receiving congratulations. But within a few minutes, a $500 backer cancelled his pledge, which I didn’t even know you could do. My […]

Cover mockup of Metamorphosis: Meatpacking District 1985 + 2013 At 65% of my Kickstarter goal with almost three weeks to go! Metamorphosis is no longer an abstraction. Yesterday, I saw the first proofs of the cover and the inside pages. They look terrific. The book in the photo above is actually a proof print of […]

Metropolitan and Graham Avenues, Williamsburg, Brooklyn — © Brian Rose A random view of a Williamsburg street corner with pigeon. I am now at 50% of my goal 9 days into the Kickstarter campaign to help fund the printing of Metamorphosis: Meatpacking District 1985 + 2013. Pledge $50 and pre-order a copy of the book […]

Off to a good start in my Kickstarter campaign. Please help make this book a success. Here’s my video pitch made on the streets of the Meatpacking District:  

Final Cover Design for Metamorphosis: Meatpacking District 1985 + 2013 Please help make this book a reality. In the winter of 1985 I spent several days wandering the streets of the Meatpacking District with my 4×5 view camera. It was different city then. Edgier, less peopled. While the Meatpacking District bustled in the early morning […]

Time and Space in the Tenement Museum shop window — © Brian Rose Prior to my recent book — Time and Space on the Lower East Side — I worked with established publishers in the Netherlands and here in New York. The results were mixed, both in terms of quality and distribution. I can’t complain […]

Manhattan Avenue, Greenpoint, Brooklyn — © Brian Rose Rivington and Orchard Streets, Lower East Side — © Brian Rose Color in bottles.  

Ok, if you’re a New Yorker I don’t need to tell you this. Don’t go to Super Bowl Boulevard — the stretch of Broadway between Times Square and Herald Square that has been turned into a writhing mass of football/commercial hysteria. You don’t need to line up for an autograph with — I couldn’t tell […]

Renee, Brendan and statue of Henry Ward Beecher — © Brian Rose A family snapshot — frozen grins — it was about 15 degrees Fahrenheit. But a momentous occasion. My wife Renee had just taken the oath for her U.S. citizenship in the Federal Courthouse nearby. Cameras were not allowed inside for the ceremony, so […]

Metamorphosis, Meatpacking District 1985+2013 — © Brian Rose As I wrote earlier, my book about the Meatpacking District is well underway. Above is the cover featuring a photograph of Washington Street from 1985. It is, in many ways, a companion to Time and Space on the Lower East Side. Metamorphosis will be the same size […]

There’s been lots of discussion about whether Inside Llewyn Davis by the Coen brothers is an Oscar-worthy masterpiece or a dismal failure. Whatever the case, I’d like to briefly touch on the look of the film. The story takes place in 1961 Greenwich Village and the main character wanders the streets and cafes of the […]