New York: Portrait Of A City

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The soul of New York: A photographic journey through the history of the world's greatest city   This book presents the epic story of New York on nearly 600 pages of emotional, atmospheric photographs, from the mid-19th century to the present day. Supplementing this treasure trove of images are over a hundred quotations and references from relevant books, movies, shows and songs. The city’s fluctuating fortunes are all represented, from the wild nights of the Jazz Age and the hedonistic disco era, to the grim days of the Depression and the devastation of 9/11 and its aftermath, as its broken-hearted but unbowed citizens picked up the pieces. New York’s remarkable rise, reinvention and growth is not just the tale of a city, but the story of a nation, From the building of the Brooklyn Bridge to the immigrants arriving at Ellis Island; from the slums of the Lower East Side to the magnificent art deco skyscrapers. The urban beach of Coney Island and the sleaze of Times Square; the vistas of Central Park and the crowds on 5th Avenue. The streets, the sidewalks, the chaos, the energy, the ethnic diversity, the culture, the fashion, the architecture, the anger and the complexity of the city is all laid out in this beautiful book block and block. This is the greatest city of the world after all and great are its extremes, contradictions and attitude. More than just a remarkable tribute to the metropolis and its civic, social, and photographic heritage, New York: Portrait of a City pays homage to the indomnitable spirit of those who call themselves New Yorkers: full of hope and strength, resolute in their determination to succeed among its glass and granite towers. Features hundreds of iconic images, sourced from dozens of archives and private collections—many never before published—and the work of over 150 celebrated photographers, including: Victor Prevost, Jacob Riis, Lewis Hine, Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Berenice Abbott, Walker Evans, Weegee, Margaret Bourke-White, Saul Leiter, Esther Bubley, Arnold Newman, William Claxton, Ralph Gibson, Ryan McGinley, Mitch Epstein, Steve Schapiro, Marvin Newman, Allen Ginsberg, Joel Meyerowitz, Andreas Feininger, Charles Cushman, Joseph Rodriguez, Garry Winogrand, Larry Fink, Jamel Shabazz, Allan Tannenbaum, Bruce Davidson, Helen Levitt, Eugene de Salignac, Ruth Orkin, Joel Sternfeld, Keizo Kitajima, and many many more.   Text in English, French, and German

Hardcover: 572 pages

Publisher: Taschen; Mul edition (September 30, 2010)

Language: English, French, German

ISBN-10: 3836505142

ISBN-13: 978-3836505147

Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 1.8 x 13.6 inches

Shipping Weight: 9.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #87,395 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #14 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography & Video > Architectural > Cities #71 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography & Video > Photojournalism & Essays > Photo Essays #1079 in Books > History > Americas > United States > State & Local

This lovely book follows the same format as Taschen's Los Angeles, Portrait of a City: a history based on named photographers though there are many fine images taken by anonymous snappers. The LA book had thirty-nine photographers but as this is New York it takes 124 of them and over 500 photos to expose the city.All the regulars are here, photographers who have created that special look over the years. Abbott, Bubley, Eisenstadt, Feininger, Klein, Orkin, Riis and a good showing from Weegee but what I found fascinating was the number photos from anonymous sources. Right up to the late Forties unknowns had taken some quite remarkable shots revealing a particular aspect of the city. Some of these run over spreads throughout the book and they look stunning. Pages 108-109 have that famous shot of the sunlight streaming through windows at Grand Central Terminus, anonymous from 1929.The book's five chapters look backwards over 160 years starting in 1850 and though maybe one could fault it by only using historical photos rather than a wider range of graphic images I think it succeeds because of this. The city has a long pedigree of photographic interpretation and some of the best works are in these pages. I thought it a plus that so many well-known images are mixed in with the dozens and dozens of not so well known shots and all collected in this big, chunky book. Another plus, least from my point-of-view, is that there are very few photos of popular culture celebrities. The celebrity is the city with nearly all the images exteriors showing the changing landscape, people (mostly just New Yorkers) or just out on the street.

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