As has been somewhat laboriously established here on Flaming Pablum, I have an almost fetishistic love for New York City, and Manhattan in particular. I love poring over books of photography on the subject, thrilled by the work of everyone from Wee Gee and Berenice Abbott through more contemporary photographers like Allen Tannenbaum and David Bradford. In many of my favorite films -- "Taxi Driver," "The Warriors," "After Hours," "The French Connection" -- New York plays a vital role, and I love seeing images of the city in its bygone incarnations. I've been known to sit through otherwise indefensible films -- everything from "Barefoot In the Park" through "What About Me?" -- only to catch fleeting glimpses of Manhattan scenes from eras past.
A while back, I met man by the name of Ned Otter down in Soho, who was selling his father's photography on the street. Unlike those mass produced, yawnsome pictures of Times Square you can find virtually everywhere, Otter's photos captured striking, poignant images of Manhattan -- and specifically Greenwich Village -- in the 50's and early 60'. It's truly captivating stuff, and you can check it out for yourself by clicking onto the Robert Otter website right here.
As a sort've companion page to Otter's, I recently found this site by a photographer named Tetsuo Kogawa. Kogawa managed to capture New York City in the 70's and 80's (the photograph of Times Square above is one of his -- note the billboards for Barry Manilow, "Oh Calcutta" and Dino DeLaurentis' adaptation of "King Kong"). There are loads of books out right now that strive to document the colorful scenes from those respective eras, but I find Kogawa's photos compelling as they capture the look of the very streets themselves. The pictures may not be as artsily composed as Otter's, but as a rare window onto what the city looked like back then, they're invaluable. It's odd how some neighborhoods look completely unchanged, whereas others are now virtually unrecognizable. If you're as fascinated by this stuff as much as I am, do please check it out.
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