Category: Photographers/Photography

Berry Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn — © Brian Rose

Without comment.

Rutgers University, Newark campus — © Brian Rose

Friday I was on assignment in Newark photographing a couple of renovated classrooms at Rutgers University. The campus, adjacent to downtown is a hodgepodge of different architectural styles built at different times, but the central campus was constructed in the late 60s/early 70s in what is commonly referred to as brutalism. I’ve written about brutalism before with regards to a Robert Geddes building at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, a sublime example of a much maligned architectural movement.

It can be a hard to love architecture in that it typically utilizes raw concrete poured into wooden forms–beton brut is the original French term–and many people find it cold, even forbidding. But some of the great architects of the 20th century worked in this idiom including Corbusier and Louis Kahn.

The Rutgers campus in Newark isn’t likely to be compared to Kahn’s Salk Institute, but it is, nevertheless, a fine example of brutalism used to create a sensitively scaled urban environment. Alas, I cannot find a single reference to the architecture of the campus on the internet other than in passing references to urban renewal and the racial tensions present in Newark at the time.

I will ask around and hopefully report back with the  name of the architect or firm that did the project. If anyone knows, by all means speak up. The photo above shows only one of the buildings (Boyden Hall), taken as I was leaving the job, which fronts on University Avenue.

Update:

I’ve been able to find out at least partial information about the Rutgers Newark campus. I read online that Grad and Grad (later the Grad Partnership) had proposed high rises for the urban renewal area that became the campus. That plan was apparently scuttled, but Grad continued to play a role in the project designing various buildings including the Robeson Campus Center.

According to David Nelson, an architect who emailed me earlier today, “Boyden and Conklin Halls, and the Dana Library, were designed by Kelly & Gruzen (now Gruzen Samton), with offices in New York and Maplewood, NJ. The drawings are dated 1964.” Gruzen has been a leading architectural firm in NYC for many years.

Up above I praised a building by Robert Geddes on the campus of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and sure enough, Hill Hall, one of the most interesting of the Rutgers structures is by Geddes Brecher Qualls Cunningham–the same Geddes. I still don’t know who was responsible for the master plan, but I am pleased to discover that the individual buildings were designed by some of the leading architects of the 1960s. It is a time period in architectural history that is often undervalued, and accordingly, the Rutgers Newark campus deserves more appreciation. If I get back there again, I’ll take some more photographs.

East 170th Street and Morris Avenue — © Brian Rose

In the Bronx shooting for a client. Beautiful weather in New York post hurricane.

Apple store in Soho — © Brian Rose

Without comment.

I’ve been browsing the local blogs for how the neighborhood fared in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene. Although some water sloshed over the seawall along the East River, the biggest damage seems to be fallen trees, as much the result of water saturated soil as wind, which was not extraordinarily strong.

Via EV Grieve,  I see that a willow tree that I photographed in a neighborhood park called La Plaza Cultural at 9th Street and Avenue C toppled in the storm. This photograph, which prominently features the fallen tree, is one of my favorites from the recent phase of the Lower East Side project:

E9th  Street and Avenue C (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose

As I’ve written elsewhere, I seem to be in the business of photographing things that are soon erased from the earth. But let’s not get too dramatic about it.

A Willow in a small New York park–fed, perhaps, by an underground stream–is not among the most permanent of things. Nevertheless, I feel the loss, and I expect many in the neighborhood will miss this great tree.

From the New York Times website

A moment of zen via the New York Times as we await the arrival of a large, but not particularly ferocious  hurricane. Good sense dictates that immediately vulnerable coastal areas be evacuated. Beaches in the city and on Long Island for sure. But Battery Park City, the East Village projects, and the high rises on the Williamsburg waterfront? All are located in the red zone A on the map above. (I’m presently in the small white area at lower right.) As with all storms in the city–nor’easters and the like–best not to walk around outside when there are high winds. I’ll be hunkered  down in my apartment until the show (nature and media) is over.

Update:

First signs of approaching storm in New York at 10pm–thunder and lightening. Reports of extensive flooding on the back end of the storm from the Outer Banks of North Carolina. A very different geographical configuration here, and a weaker storm, we can only wait and see how much water gets pushed into the harbor and the Long Island Sound to the north. Friends of mine just bought a house on the beach in Connecticut right in the expected path of the storm.

Update:

Things are winding down with some gusts of wind  from the backside of the storm. Some flooding in low lying areas including stretches of the FDR drive along the East River in Manhattan. There are trees down all over. For those close to the beaches, or with homes in flood prone areas, the storm was no joke. But to the majority of us in the city, it was just another windy rainy day.

High Street, Portsmouth, Virginia — © Brian Rose

My mother, sister, and I drove around the Hampton Roads area revisiting places where we once lived, or places that held some significance. Near the picture above, I remember–at age 4–going to a bowling alley above an A&P supermarket. My mother was a competitive duckpin bowler in those days. I remember the pins were set by hand–by young black boys. It was a segregated city then, and it is still. The whites have moved out except for the beautifully preserved Old Town, and much of the city looks like a smaller version of Detroit.

Portsmouth, Virginia — © Brian Rose

Without comment.

The James River near Surry — © Brian Rose

Taken with my iPhone. We found this spot a mile or two down a dirt road near the James River ferry. Back to New York today.

A song I wrote years ago:

Down Below the James

My sister, father, and me one week ago in Williamsburg.

It has been a roller coaster of a weekend for me. Saturday, a story and interview about my photos of the World Trade Center ran on the homepage of CNN. Today, I rushed down to Virginia after receiving a phone call informing me that my 90 year old father was rapidly slipping away. I arrived too late. He died this afternoon before I got there.

The photo above was taken a week ago. After an extended stay in the hospital and in rehab, my father had come back home to his assisted living apartment. It was a short-lived, but triumphant return. He was happy to be with friends and in familiar surroundings. My sister and I wheeled him around the building greeting residents along the way, and we  sat with him in the dining room accompanied by his table buddies. It appeared, fleetingly, that he might resume a measure of his former routine. But it was not to be.

This morning, an article and podcast interview about my photographs of the World Trade Center is featured on the front page of CNN.com.  Be sure to listen to the podcast, which is down on the left side of the page.

Article, photos, and interview can be found here.

West 36th Street — © Brian Rose

Stan Banos at Reciprocity Failure asks “Are you a street photographer?” and points to my recent photograph of balloons as evidence that it is still possible to find moments of wonder ” in the street.” People suggest that street photography is making a comeback.

Maybe I’m out of touch with the current chatter, but it’s not something I’ve thought about lately. I guess there was a time as a student when I thought of myself as a street photographer. And it’s true that I still make a lot of photographs while perambulating about the city. But it seems to me that street photography refers more to a style of picture taking than to the simple act of making photographs in public places.

Sometimes I work with a 4×5 view camera, especially engaged in long term projects, and sometimes a pocket size digital camera. The photograph above was made with a Canon 5D with a tilt/shift lens employed while doing an architectural shoot. I find images where I am–the street or otherwise.

First Avenue in the East Village — © Brian Rose

First Avenue in the East Village — © Brian Rose

Walking to the subway–taken 30 seconds apart.

Delancey Street — © Brian Rose

Back in town.

Williamsburg, Virginia — © Brian Rose

Once again in Williamsburg, Virginia attending to my 90 year old father. Heading back to New York later today.

Williamsburg, Virginia — © Brian Rose

Bond Street — © Brian Rose

Bond and Lafayette Streets — © Brian Rose

In the grip of a debt crisis brought on by Tea Party economic terrorism, New York appears placid at the start of the weekend–on the surface.  One imagines the agitated garden party conversations  out in the Hamptons among the captains of finance. How did the good faith and credit of the United States come to be held hostage by an ignorant rabble? The mind boggles. We all await Monday and the morning bell.

I will be teaching a class this fall at ICP focused on photographing the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Each student will pick a subject, theme, or geographical area–I plan to shoot the Bowery with a 4×5 camera–and then we will design and print a book of the images using Blurb. This will be the coolest class ever. Go here for a pdf of the entire brochure. Below is a clipping:

E9th Street — © Brian Rose

E13th Street — © Brian Rose

Walking through the East Village on a sultry evening.