Bonnie Yochelson

This small book with limited writing and an abundance of horrific pictures is a must read for anyone who is interested in social history, grinding poverty and child mortality in NY at the turn of the century, understanding that the modern term ' 3rd world country ' is easily applied here.

The pictures show homeless, ragged and shoeless children sleeping on the streets, young orphans renting out some dirty squalid room someplace with no adults involved, the 16 hour work days including children who worked often as many hours in horrible and dangerous conditions as the adults and all the filthy, dangereous and awful places they 'lived' and often died.
Many lived in coal cellars, under City dumps, on the streets, etc.

It is a wonder any of them survived and that the suicide rate wasn't higher than what it was.

Harrowing.… (altro)

I have had a poster of Edward Steichen's photograph of The Flatiron Building hanging on my bedroom wall since I was a teenager. Looking at this poster daily led to the development of a little obsession with the Flatiron building and any art work depicting the Flatiron building. (actual name : The Fuller Building). This obsession led me to the photography of Alfred Stieglitz.
This volume is a collection of all the New York City photographs by Stieglitz. A history of Stieglitz's life in NYC and Europe, his photography, his marriages and the galleries, magazines and photographic organizations he founded comprises the text of the book. His photography is compared to the paintings and photographs of other artists, many who inspired him, depicting the same subjects (images included in the book) and in my opinion, often found not to be as good as the work that had inspired him. It's obvious that he sometimes copied other artists styles outright. The text describes that photographers sometimes did this copying of style as a challenge among friends.
The photography is beautiful. I love Stieglitz's older NYC photos --- ground level, rain and snow covered scenes. His later photos, shot from high rise windows are not as interesting to me. I realize that they were considered ground breaking at the time because most people had not seen NYC from above.… (altro)