New York in Photographs and Art

Then and Now

Old Brooklyn in Early Photographs, 1865-1929
by William Lee Younger

Spanning more than 100 years, New York: 365 Days is a spectacular collection of then-and-now photographs that capture the rhythms and moods of the greatest city in the world. Selected from the vast archive of The New York Times, the extraordinary images in this book include many rarely-seen moments, with stops at famous landmarks and memorable events as well as a dizzying array of evocative everyday New York scenes. Featuring an introduction by bestselling New York writer Gay Talese, New York: 365 Days offers a portrait of Gotham that natives and visitors alike will find riveting.

Through the Decades

New York in the Sixties
by Allan R. Talbot

so8os: A Photographic Diary of a Decade
by Patrick McMullan (photographer)

New York, New York

New York State of Mind
by Martha Cooper

In 1975, New York City was bankrupt. Crime was at an all-time high, street muggings were commonplace, buildings were crumbling, entire neighborhoods were abandoned by landlords as residents fled to the suburbs, and the federal government couldn’t care less. Nevertheless, intrepid documentary photographer Martha Cooper was inexorably drawn to this embattled but irresistible urban mecca. Moving from the quiet shores of Narragansett, Rhode Island, Cooper fell in love with lawless New York, where the citizens reveled in the “anything goes” atmosphere and prided themselves on their survival strategies. She zipped around the city in a beat-up Honda Civic with no qualms about making U-turns to shoot a quick photo or double park whenever, wherever. Her friends complained that she drove like a cabbie and Cooper took that as a supreme compliment. In 1977, Cooper landed a staff position at the New York Post, and for the next three years she canvassed the city daily, shooting every kind of assignment imaginable. From blizzards to beaches, rooftops to Central Park, Cooper’s photographs, collected here for the first time, reveal the true New York State of Mind.

New York Life at the Turn of the Century in Photographs
by Joseph Byron

Photographs of New York Interiors at the Turn of the Century
by Joseph Byron

New York
by Christopher Bliss

360º New York
by Nick Wood

This enormous, 12″ x 18″ book with 220 carefully composed shots and 12 gatefolds should be the New York photo book of the season. Berenholtz (Panoramic New York) does not match 19th-century Paris photographer Eugene Atget’s elegant encyclopedism, but his compositions exude the patience and calm needed to get the money shots: the Cloisters, afternoon shadows striping the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s solarium, the recently replaced Planetarium, the familiar interior and exterior orbits of the Guggenheim. And given that the book was in preparation a year before September 11, there are monumental pictures of the World Trade Center, captured in more lights and at more angles than many people will conceivably want or need. Yet even the most jaded photo connoisseur will find Berenholtz’s pictures of Grand Central Station spectacular, and the Times Square and full skyline panoramas breathtaking. The shots of more anonymous facade details, lesser known parks, subway stations, and bridges other than the Brooklyn feel fresh. The light and the weather play starring roles here, as pains seem to have been taken to eliminate people and cars. Berenholtz used no filters, but coaxes deep and often surprising colors out of the skies and facades. If the lush printing can sometimes feel a little late-’90s glitzy, the whole strikes an excellent balance between garish and grounded, much like New York itself.

Reed Business Information, Inc.

The same book as above, but a much smaller version:

New York New York: Mini
by Richard Berenholtz

Top of the City: New York’s Hidden Rooftop World
by Laura Rosen