Wall Street, 1981 (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose

Although I’ve been posting photographs of the World Trade Center made in 1981, I also did lots of photographs of Lower Manhattan that did not include the constantly looming Twin Towers. And not all were sweeping views of the skyline like so many of the images in my WTC book. The picture above was made one evening on Wall Street, the spire of Trinity Church in the background echoed nicely by the icons on the Johnny Walker billboard. “Moon Can’t Be Deported” refers to Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church who was in trouble because of tax fraud.

In the midst of the current drama in Egypt there was an article in the Times this morning about a possible merger between the Frankfurt exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. In practical terms such a merger would only highlight the increasingly international nature of finance. When I took the photograph above, trading was mostly done directly on the floor of the nearby stock exchange. But symbolically, this could be a big deal–a perceived loss of prestige–and it will be interesting to see how it plays out politically.

I am still reading Lens of the City, which tells the history of the documentary survey grants made by the National Endowment for the Arts in the late 70s and early 80s. My Lower Manhattan pictures were funded by one of those NEA grants. Comments and thoughts to come soon.

Showed my work to Robert Mann the gallery owner–someone I’ve stayed in touch with over the years. He likes my work a lot, and will keep me in mind as things go along. Meanwhile, I keep schlepping my portfolio around.