I walked up the Williamsburg Bridge the other day and made this photograph. I timed it for the light and knew the spot from previous walks. Most of the bridge walkway is surrounded by a chainlink-like mesh, but there are places where you can wedge a small camera lens in between.

It’s a view that in one swoop takes in so much of what Williamsburg is about in 2020. There are still a few 19th-century houses and tenements, low one-story factory buildings, large loft buildings, and recently, many new condominiums. Everything not actively maintained is covered in graffiti, and murals decorate many of the sides of older buildings. You can just make out the Manhattan Bridge to the right of the glass towers that stand on the edge of the East River.

From the Williamsburg Bridge – South 6th and Wythe Avenue – © Brian Rose

From the Williamsburg Bridge – South 6th and Wythe Avenue – photo by Joji Hashiguchi

I came across the image above by the Japanese photographer Jaji Hashiguchi. It is essentially the same view as my photo made around 1980. It’s not typical of Hashiguchi’s deeply resonant street-oriented photography from that era, but it provides topographical context for his more intimate views of young people in Tokyo, New York, and Berlin. His book, “We Have No Place to Be 1980-1982,” has recently been re-released.

There are only a few shared reference points in my image and Hashiguchi’s – the Manhattan Bridge tower, the brick smokestack at center right, and the one-story building at the corner of Wythe and South 6th at bottom left. The large loft building at rear left in Hashiguchi’s image is still there, but is now obscured by new buildings.

It’s an incredible juxtaposition.

We Have No Place to Be 1980-1982