{"id":5453,"date":"2013-08-27T09:15:54","date_gmt":"2013-08-27T13:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/?p=5453"},"modified":"2013-08-27T17:20:46","modified_gmt":"2013-08-27T21:20:46","slug":"new-yorkmeatpacking-district-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/new-yorkmeatpacking-district-4\/","title":{"rendered":"New York\/Meatpacking District"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"printonstreet\"
\n<\/a>On the street with a print from a 1985 image. (digital) — \u00a9 Brian Rose<\/p>\n

Everyone thinks I should do it, so I am working on a series of before\/after images of the Meatpacking District. I originally photographed the area in 1985, also venturing uptown into west Chelsea. I had completed the Lower East Side project — which I later came back to — and I had finished photographing the Financial District — with an NEA grant. I had also begun photographing various NYC parks, and later that year I would begin my travels along the Iron Curtain border across Europe. But for a week or so in late winter of 1985 I wandered around the west side of Manhattan and documented the profoundly empty streets, like a stage set with the actors on break. Eventually, as we all know, the people would come.<\/p>\n

\"mp033\"<\/a>Gansevoort Street 1985 (4×5 negative) — \u00a9 Brian Rose<\/p>\n

\"mepa004\"<\/a>Gansevoort Street 2013 (4×5 negative) — \u00a9 Brian Rose<\/p>\n

My experience with photographing New York, however, does not always follow the usual expectations about then and now. And with the Time and Space on the Lower East Side I deliberately wanted to challenge preconceived notions about what change actually looks like on the streets of the city.<\/p>\n

New York, even the relatively glittering canyons of Manhattan, remains an often gritty place. The Meatpacking District has become a center of fashion and art, but like Soho before it, it continues to show its utilitarian roots, and is still dominated by late 19th and early 20th century architecture. The Gansevoort Market is still in business under the High Line housing a number of meat purveyors. In the view above of Gansevoort Street, one has to look twice to see the changes. Florent, the famous restaurant from ’80s is gone, and another restaurant has taken its place. The storefront of the small reddish building is now a boutique, but much of the block remains empty — as a Maserati rumbles along the cobblestones.<\/p>\n

\"r&l\"<\/a>Gansevoort Street 2013 (4×5 negative) — \u00a9 Brian Rose<\/p>\n

As is often the case, “after” photographs can be less compelling than “befores.” The factors that led to the first image being made, are no longer present. These can be very subtle attributes, atmospheric, ineffable. So, part of my strategy in rephotographing the Meatpacking District is to look for new pictures, or variations on the originals. \u00a0The image directly above was made a few minutes after repeating the 1985 picture. It is, perhaps, a better description of the block with the Standard Hotel looming in the background.<\/p>\n

\"mp009\"<\/a>Washington Street 1985 (4×5 negative) — \u00a9 Brian Rose<\/p>\n

\"wash13\"<\/a>Washington Street 2013 (digital) — \u00a9 Brian Rose<\/p>\n

\"mp025\"<\/a>Washington Street 1985 (4×5 negative) — \u00a9 Brian Rose<\/p>\n

\"redmustang\"<\/a>Washington Street 2013 (digital) — \u00a9 Brian Rose<\/p>\n

I am shooting the new photographs in 4×5 film using a similar camera and lens as in 1985, but then scanning the negatives and working up the images in Photoshop. Some of the images here were taken with my point-and-shoot, which I usually have with me while working with the big camera. As the film gets processed and the images completed, I will replace the digital snaps with the final 4×5 photos.<\/p>\n

\"royaleveal\"<\/a>Washington Street 1985 (4×5 film) — \u00a9 Brian Rose<\/p>\n

\"mepa003\"<\/a>Washington Street 2013 (4×5 film) — \u00a9 Brian Rose<\/p>\n

\"mp029\"<\/a>Washington Street 1985 (4×5 film) — \u00a9 Brian Rose<\/p>\n

\"mepa016\"<\/a>Washington Street 2013 (4×5 film) — \u00a9 Brian Rose<\/p>\n

In a previous post<\/a>, I wrote about this being the former location of the Mineshaft, an infamous men’s sex club closed at the height of the AIDS crisis just a few months after my photograph was taken\u00a0in 1985. Now, other sybaritic delights beckon.<\/p>\n

\"mp003\"<\/a>West 14th Street 1985 (4×5 negative) — \u00a9 Brian Rose<\/p>\n

\"mepa013\"<\/a>West 14th Street 2013 (4×5 negative) — \u00a9 Brian Rose<\/p>\n

The images above are both 4x5s. I made several pictures with the 14th Street Apple store clearly visible on the right, but stepping a few feet forward better duplicated the original image.<\/p>\n

\"mp011\"<\/a>Hudson and 14th Street 1985 (4×5 film) — \u00a9 Brian Rose<\/p>\n

\"hudson14\"<\/a>Hudson and 14th Street 2013 (4×5 film) — \u00a9 Brian Rose<\/p>\n

\"sellfromhere\"<\/a>Little West 12th Street and West Street 1985 (4×5 film) — \u00a9 Brian Rose<\/p>\n

\"centurywaste\"<\/a>Little West 12th Street and West Street 2013 (4×5 film) — \u00a9 Brian Rose<\/p>\n

\"pierarch\"<\/a>Pier 54 2013 (digital) — \u00a9 Brian Rose<\/p>\n

When I photographed the area in 1985, Pier 54 was an enclosed building as seen above. At present, only the steel structure of the facade remains. Occasionally the the otherwise empty pier is used for events. A small part of it is open to the public, and while I was there a couple of female skateboarders zoomed about while bicycles and joggers streamed along West Street.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned for more pictures.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the street with a print from a 1985 image. (digital) — \u00a9 Brian Rose Everyone thinks I should do it, so I am working on a series of before\/after images of the Meatpacking District. I originally photographed the area in 1985, also venturing uptown into west Chelsea. I had completed the Lower East Side […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5453"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5481,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5453\/revisions\/5481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}