New York/Bowery

The Bowery (digital) • © Brian Rose

Walked through the Lower East Side and up the Bowery with Rodger Kingston, photographer and Walker Evans scholar. Took the snap above.

If you haven't seen it, be sure to read Suzanne Vega's blog post on the New York Times website about the origins and subsequent history of her song Tom's Diner. I figure in the story.

New York/Bowery

The Bowery • 2008 (4x5 film)
©Brian Rose

Without comment.

New York/London

Morgan Stanley • London trading floor (4x5 film)
© Brian Rose

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the last big independent investment banks on Wall Street, will transform themselves into bank holding companies subject to far greater regulation, the Federal Reserve said Sunday night, a move that fundamentally reshapes an era of high finance that defined the modern Gilded Age.

The New York Times

New York/Lower Manhattan

Lower Manhattan (4x5 film)
© Brian Rose

Without comment.

New York/Wall Street

Wall Street • 1981 (4x5 film)
© Brian Rose

Without comment.

New York/Seven Years

The World Trade Center • 1982 (4x5 film)
© Brian Rose

In 1974 when the WTC was just being completed, Philippe Petit, a French street performer strung a cable between the Twin Towers and proceeded to tightrope walk back and forth 6 or 8 times. Thousands watched in amazement from below. Eventually he surrendered to the waiting arms of the police. In the end, public sentiment ruled in his favor, and charges were dropped in exchange for a performance by Petit for children in Central Park. His breathtaking walk between the Twin Towers has become part of the folklore of New York, made all the more poignant by the horror of 9/11--seven years ago.


The World Trade Center • Phillipe Petit's signature (4x5 film)
© Brian Rose

In the early '80s I did a series of photographs of Lower Manhattan, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, back when there was still NEA support for individual artists. Shortly after the destruction of the Trade Center, I sifted through my archive for photographs that included the WTC. They can be seen here. On of the pictures I came across was taken from the observation deck on Tower 2. I did a high resolution scan of the 4x5 negative and discovered something unseen in normal prints of the image, Philippe Petit's scratched signature and tightrope icon.

New York/Color Photography

In 1975 when I first went to art school (MICA in Baltimore) I was shooting exclusively in black and white. It was understood implicitly that fine art photographs were monochromatic--color was National Geographic and cigarette ads.

I'd been interested in color for a couple of years going back to a single roll of slide film that I ran through my camera. I had glossy 8x10s made of two of those images. But the color photography class at MICA in those days was mostly a tedious print making exercise that I avoided. In 1976 I started shooting 35mm slide film (mostly Kodachrome), was hooked, and never went back. I left Baltimore for New York, and ended up at Cooper Union where I studied with Joel Meyerowitz. By the end of 1979 I had begun my first major project, (in color) photographing the Lower East Side.


Joel Meyerowitz images from When Color was New (digital)
Julie Saul Gallery

Meyerowitz was one of 20 photographers in When Color was New, an exhibition that just came down at Julie Saul Gallery in Chelsea. The exhibit, although modest in scope, covered many of the key players in what was a fairly small circle of people exploring color as a serious photographic medium. Until that time, photography was mostly relegated to the "photo ghetto," as we called it, galleries that generally showed smallish black and white prints, and tended to favor "concerned photography" or still lifes and landscapes rendered in luscious tonalities. Plenty of good stuff in there, don't get me wrong, but none of it cutting edge in my estimation. Light Gallery, in New York, was a notable exception, showing the most innovative work of the 1970s including color when it emerged toward the end of the decade.

When Color was New covered the range of work done at the time including more conceptual work like John Pfahl's as well as the multi-frame images of Jan Groover. Groover was a break out artist in the '70s because her work was shown in a "real" gallery as opposed to a purely photographic house. What I like about these earlier constructed images by Pfahl and Groover is that you can see the artifice of the work unlike the many seamless Photoshop concoctions of the present.


Joel Sternfeld and Mitch Epstein images (digital)
Julie Saul Gallery

The show included two Meyerowitz street photographs--pictures that I was familiar with in the late 70s--vividly preserved as dye transfer prints. Dye transfers were expensive to produce, but were inherently stable pigment based prints unlike C-prints. But C-prints were possible to do yourself--I printed at a rental lab--and much of the early color work was done that way. The vintage C-prints in the show were, generally, faded and yellowed, which I suppose is acceptable from a historical collecting point of view. But it is not the way to view these previously vibrant images. It is now possible to go back to the original negatives, scan them, and achieve results that make vintage C-prints look like ancient artifacts. Even familiar images like Joel Sternfeld's picture of the Space Shuttle or Martin Parr's hot dog eaters, were shown faded and color shifted. These are artists who are very much alive and kicking.

In no way to denigrate this enjoyable show, however, I think it's time for a major survey exhibition on this important period of photography history. There are others, beyond the 20 photographers in the show who deserve inclusion--Len Jenshel and Jan Staller are two who come to mind--and I would hope my own work from that period might also find a spot.

New York/Waterfall

I've written already about the New York Waterfalls by Olafur Eliasson, which will be coming down soon after a summer of pumping water up and over their steel scaffolds. I'm not sure this was great success as public art, but it obviously was good for the city from a tourism point of view. The water quantity--or lack of it--has been discussed. There is now concern about damage being done to trees in Brooklyn because of the constant spray of salt water. It is true, if you stand on the Promenade high above the harbor on a windy day, there is a mist of water in the air from the nearest waterfall.


Waterfall, Brooklyn piers (4x5 film)
© Brian Rose


Waterfall, Brooklyn piers (4x5 film)
© Brian Rose

After spending a couple of days on the Brooklyn waterfront shooting for an assignment, seeing the Waterfalls mostly from behind, I've come to appreciate their erector set aspect, with the flow of water being a more ephemeral presence. Here are two photographs of the Brooklyn piers Waterfall--one from the Promenade, and one from the edge of the water, the scruffy area that will soon be transformed into a park.

New York/LES

Delancey Street and Ludlow (digital)
© Brian Rose

As an architectural photographer, it is my job, to make buildings look good, and to elevate the work of the architect who designed them. That does not mean that I have to like everything I photograph. I understand better than most, how decent designs get crushed by value engineering and cost cutting. Mediocre buildings are not always first and foremost the fault of architects. Developers, builders, engineers, planners, municipal agencies, nimby activists, all can contribute to the watering down of design, even to the point of creating a bad building.


Delancey Street and Ludlow (digital)
© Brian Rose

So, I have no idea what the hell went wrong here, but I know bad when I see it. This deadening brick tower evokes a 1960s government office building in the downtown of a small regional city. Windows are apparently an expensive amenity to be avoided in this bunker-like box. Narrow slits will do. The south facing facade, especially, is largely closed off to the sunlight and view of the lower Manhattan skyline.


Delancey Street and Orchard (digital)
© Brian Rose

And what to do with all the blank brick walls? I've seen stripes and banding, checkerboard patterns, colorful abstractions, but this is the first pixellated facade I've seen. Rendered in bland shades of café au lait.

And who will occupy this wonderful edifice? Why the students of SVA (the School of Visual Arts), one of New York's premier art and design colleges. As a dormitory it will serve as an object lesson in bad design and the destruction of the urban fabric.

For the record, these are the culprits:

Developer - Charles Blaichman
Architect - Rawlings architects
Tenant - SVA
Commercial tenant - Bank of America (another branch bank!)


Orchard Street (digital)
© Brian Rose

Just around the corner from the SVA bunker, a surviving piece of the old Lower East Side.

New York/LES

Delancey Street (digital)
© Brian Rose

Without comment.