New York Changing

...and somewhat continuing the thread of classic NYC photographs we have...

Berenice Abbott's "Changing New York" project in the late 1930's created a majestic documentation of Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs. Since 1997 I have returned to the original sites, with the identical camera, an 8x10 Century Universal, at the same time of day and year.

A single photograph gives the illusion that time stops. A rephotograph lifts that illusion. In this tangling of the old and the new, the different and the same, lies the truth that Berenice Abbott understood well. All is flux; change is the only permanence. I hope that our paired works constitute a fresh invitation - not only to the rephotographers of the future but to anyone interested in urban life. The future of our city depends, in great part, on understanding how past decisions have played out.

You should really go check this out right now. I don't think I've spent more time on a web site in quite a long while. It's that good.

Here's a sample:


GARIBALDI MEMORIAL, STATEN ISLAND, 1937
Tompkins Avenue and Chestnut Avenues


GARIBALDI-MEUCCI MUSEUM, STATEN ISLAND, 1998
Tompkins Avenue and Chestnut Avenues

What's up with that? I'm going to have to Google for more info but what on earth would possess someone to put Roman temple adornments around a two story house in Staten Island?