Golden Section Publishers

For Immediate Release

 

Metamorphosis: Meatpacking District

1985 + 2013

By Brian Rose

It was the winter of 1985, when Brian Rose decided to explore the Meatpacking District with his 4x5 view camera. Early in the morning before dawn, it was a scene of carnage as men grappled with meat carcasses hanging from hooks under metal awnings along the streets. At night, a different sort of meat market took place as prostitutes prowled the same streets, and leather clad men sought the anonymous doors of sex clubs.

But during the daytime when Rose wandered the streets, the area was utterly abandoned -- a stage set New York -- as if the actors had all gone on break. The desolation is astonishing in light of what has happened in the years since to the Meatpacking District and New York in general.


Metamorphosis can be previewed here.

Metamorphosis webpage
http://www.brianrose.com/metamorphosis.htm


Rose never printed his Meatpacking images. He went on to other projects, other parts of the world. In 2012 he pulled out the box of negatives and began scanning. The recovered images, made with little artifice, were stunning to see. At the urging of many, he decided to re-photograph the Meatpacking District, repeating many of the 1985 views and making a number of new ones.

The result is Metamorphosis: Meatpacking District 1985 + 2013, a book that tells the story of almost unprecedented urban transformation, from wasteland to epicenter of art and fashion.

Washington Street 1985   Washington Street 2013

Jeremiah Moss of the blog Vanishing New York writes in his foreword: With his camera, Rose observes the changes without judgment. He stands back and offers us a rare and detailed side-by-side view across time, but never tells us what to think or feel about what we see. Just as there are two views in this book, there are also two books. One reader will find a celebration of urban renewalÕs triumph. Others will find a memorial, a story of loss, filled with regret.

 

Brian Rose came to New York in 1977 to attend The Cooper Union where he studied with photographers Joel Meyerowitz and the filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker. His book, The Lost Border, the Landscape of the Iron Curtain, was published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2004. Time and Space on the Lower East Side was published by Golden Section Publishers in 2012, and photographs from the book were exhibited at Dillon Gallery in 2013. RoseÕs photographs have been collected by the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He lives in New York City with urban planner RenŽe Schoonbeek and his 15-year-old son Brendan.

 

Time and Space on the Lower East Side can be previewed here.

 

Contacts:

 

Golden Section Publishers

Bill Diodato, Publisher
212.563.1724
bill@billdiodato.com

 

Brian Rose

brose@brianrose.com

917-497-7580

 

http://www.brianrose.com

 

West 14th Street 1985   West 14th Street 2013
Press for Metamorphosis: Meatpacking District

„ Jeremiah's Vanishing New York, August 28, 2013
„ Curbed, August 28, 2013
„ Gothamist, August 28, 2013
„ Bowery Boogie, March 24, 2014
„ Untapped Cities, March 25, 2014
„ Watson, March 20, 2014 (German)
• Societe Perrier, May 16, 2014
• Pro Photo Daily, July 18, 2014
• I Fear Brooklyn, July 28, 2014
• Cool Hunting (Interview), August 5, 2014
• Business Insider, August 6, 2014
• No Such Thing As Was (Interview), August 7, 2014
 Press for Time and Space on the Lower East Side

• The New York Times, May 8, 1981
• ArtForum, September 1981
• B (blog by Blake Andrews), August 18, 2010
• Reciprocity Failure, July 23, 2010
• EV Grieve, July 14, 2010 (1)
• EV Grieve, July 14, 2010 (2)
• Manchester Photography, December 10, 2007
• bowery 2.0, January 7, 2011
• Reciprocity Failure, March 28, 2012
• Conscientious, May 18, 2012
• Manchester Photography, June 7, 2012
• Cool Hunting, June 8, 2012
• The Morning News, June 11, 2012
• DART/Design Arts Daily, June 12, 2012
• The Local: East Village, June15, 2012
• The Wall Street Journal, June 15, 2012
• EV Grieve, June 27, 2012
„ The Daily Beast, July 11, 2012
„ Photo-eye Magazine, July 19, 2012
„ BreakThru Radio interview, September 7, 2012
• Pro Photo Daily, October 19, 2012