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 […]

Foot of Main — by Fred Herzog A curious thing has happened in the telling of the history of color photography. In recent years, it was discovered that two photographers, Fred Herzog of Vancouver and Saul Leiter of New York, had worked in color long before the familiar names associated with the development of the medium. […]

Manhattan Avenue, Greenpoint, Brooklyn (digital) — © Brian Rose It’s the end of the year and I’m feeling somewhat wistful. A year of accomplishments — the success of Time and Space on the Lower East Side — my show at Dillon Gallery — the completion of Metamorphosis, my Meatpacking District book to be released this […]

Time and Space on the Lower East Side As many of you know, Cooper Union, the esteemed tuition-free art/architecture/engineering college is in the midst of an existential crisis. The Board of Trustees has proposed charging tuition to solve the school’s financial problems. Alumni, students, and other friends of Cooper are fighting the change. I have […]

Purchase, New York (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose My journal has been quiet lately for several reasons, the main one being that I’ve been working on two books. As mentioned in an earlier post, my book about the Meatpacking District is now in the works.The final design is complete, and I am now fine […]

Saint Nicholas and his Servant Since it’s all over the media, and today in the New York Times, I will briefly enter the fray surrounding the Dutch cultural icon Zwarte Piet (Black Peter). As many of you know, I am married to a Dutch woman and lived in the Netherlands for about 15 years. My […]

Ninth Avenue and West 15th Street (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose My Meatpacking book is now in production, and I’m working with the same publishing team as the last time led by Bill Diodato. It will have 50 images–about 40 of them before/afters (1985/2013) and the rest will be newly made images. The picture […]

14th Street, Ninth Avenue, Hudson Street (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose Washington Street, Whitney Museum construction (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose Two temples of culture and commerce. The glowing Apple Store on 14th Street beckons on a relatively mild autumn evening, a green iPhone hovering  in the sky. To the south on Washington […]

On the High Line (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose On the High Line (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose More work on my Meatpacking District project.

Two sets of before/after images taken in Chelsea on 23rd Street. Both feature two of New York’s most imposing buildings. The Starrett-Lehigh Building on Eleventh Avenue, which was built in the early ’30s as a distribution and warehouse facility near the docks on the Hudson River. Trains could load and unload inside the building, and […]

I’ve been hard at work on my Meatpacking before/after series. Most of the direct then and now pictures are done, and I am continuing to do new views of the area as they present themselves. Many of the 1985 pictures were taken on bleak winter days with minimal sunlight. Lately, I’ve been stuck with crisp […]

Inside the Statue of Liberty — © Brian Rose “There must be some way out of here,” said the joker to the thief “There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth None of them along the line know what any of it is worth” – […]

Inside the Statue of Liberty — © Brian Rose The world waits for the Republican putsch to fail in the final hour.  

Inside the Statue of Liberty — © Brian Rose New York State has reopened the Statue by paying the salaries of federal employees who have been furloughed by the Republican shutdown of the government. Meanwhile the countdown to default and financial apocalypse continues.    

East 1st Street between the Bowery and Second Avenue (digital) — © Brian Rose North 3rd Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn (digital) — © Brian Rose Without comment.  

Behind the face of the Statue of Liberty — © Brian Rose Lady Liberty looks on in horror. Republican extremists threaten to fly planes into the world economy.    

Inside the Statue of Liberty — © Brian Rose Closed by a traitorous gang of political thugs.