New York/Temple Emanu-El

View southwest toward the rose window (4x5 film)

Last week I photographed the Temple Emanu-El on the Upper East Side. Two long days of shooting. It's an extraordinary building completed in 1929 displaying a dizzying mix of architectural styles including Gothic, Romanesque, Moorish, and Byzantine. But above all, it is an Art Deco building constructed at the height of that movement in New York. In its theatricality, the temple can even be compared to Radio City Music Hall finished just three years later in 1932, though its Moderne aspects are more subdued and partly obscured by other historical references.


View east toward the ark (4x5 film)

The building was largely intact when restoration was begun, but years of dirt and grime were removed to reveal the cacophany of color and pattern on the ceiling and the mosaic arches surrounding the arks in the main temple sanctuary and the smaller adjacent chapel. More photographs to come.