Cover Image: Donna Ferrato (American, b. 1949), 34 Leonard St. formerly Provenzano Garage, 2007, from the portfolio Tribeca, 10013, pigment on fber print, 26 x 20.5 in., Hofstra University Museum of Art, gift of Susan and Steven Ball, HU2014.20.5 © 2022 Hofstra University Museum of Art All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior permission of the Hofstra University Museum of Art.
New York, New York: Photographs from the Collection September 6-December 9, 2022 | Emily Lowe Gallery
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Museum exhibitions are a collaborative process, from the initial idea to the opening reception. I am extremely grateful for the continuing support and commitment of the Museum staff. I also thank the New York State Council on the Arts for their ongoing funding, which helps bring all the Museum’s exhibitions and educational programs to fruition.
Museum of Art’s highly regarded collection of more than 5,200 works of art is a rich and deep source for exhibition themes and ideas. The collection contains 975 photographs, dating mostly from the 20th and 21st centuries, with a few earlier examples. Gelatin silver prints are the primary medium, but examples of chromogenic color prints, cibachrome/ Ilfochrome color prints, dye transfer prints, photogravures, palladium prints, and Polaroids are also included. The exhibition New York, New York: Photographs from the Collection presents 45 photographs selected from this larger group. These photographs include not only iconic images of the built environment exemplified by skyscrapers and bridges but also depictions of the people who inhabit the city.
Guest Curator Susannah Ray – a New Yorker with a background as a photographer – provides us with an insightful and thoughtful selection of images. Her cultivated eye and immense knowledge about the history of photography are evident in her choices and in the catalog essay. Seeing works of art through someone else’s perspective allows us to see them differently and to discover something new in an image that we thought we knew. I am indebted to her for her careful and studied curation.
Karen T. Albert Director, Hofstra University Museum of Art
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TheForewordHofstraUniversity
In the opening scene of MGM’s 1949 technicolor film On the Town, the sun rises over the New York City harbor as it slowly comes to life, recalling photographer Paul Strand and artist Charles Sheeler’s groundbreaking 1921 art film, Manhatta. Strand and Sheeler compiled black-and-white footage of Manhattan and its surrounding waters into an homage to its architecture and inhuman scale, cycling from sun up to sun down on a seemingly single day. On the Town follows this “day in the life” model to a vastly different effect, spinning out a charming, if not trite, tale of three Navy sailors on shore leave seeking love and a little adventure. Their New York City resembles one perpetuated by Hollywood for a century, with characters closer to those seen on an episode of Friends than an actual walk through Times Square.
A Photographic Tradition Photography grew alongside the city, its evolution tied in with the changing streets. The Daguerreotype, one of the first photographic processes, was introduced to the public in Paris in 1839 and by the late 1850s was tremendously popular in New York. All along Broadway, portrait studios vied for clients, who would pose amongst elaborate sets for the extended exposures, holding each pose for minutes at a time.
Immediately upon setting foot on a Manhattan pier, the three sailors (played by Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Jules Munshin) burst into song, bellowing, “New York, New York, it’s a wonderful town,” a phrase sanitized from the original Broadway lyric, “a helluva town.” Already Hollywood had taken the New York out of New York, removed any edge by native New York lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green, to make it palatable for mainstream audiences. The New York City presented in popular culture is “a visitor’s place,” to borrow a later lyric from On the Town’s anthemic opening song.
To actually find a “helluva town,” we must turn toward the photographs in this exhibition, as seen through the lenses of Louis Feininger, Berenice Abbott, Diane Arbus, Joel Meyerowitz, Harold Feinstein, Donna Ferrato, and many other esteemed image makers. Not all are native New Yorkers, but they are inheritors of this complex city, dedicated to seeking its intricacies, grandeur, joy, and hardships. In photographs taken between 1932 and 2008, they celebrate the city’s iconic architecture, everyday streets and signage, authentic faces, and dynamic street scenes. The New York that inspires Hollywood dreams is still here, but tempered by a real one in which people live, work, survive, and die.
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A Helluva
Improvements in the process made it possible to photograph moving scenes, and soon images of the city captured the imagination of consumers. E. & H.T. Anthony & Co.’s 1859 stereographic view, Broadway on a Rainy Day, marked the beginnings of street photography, the parent of so many of the images found in this exhibition. In two nearly identical exposures, paired to create a three-dimensional effect for the viewer, figures and carriages throng the wet cobblestone streets. Many are caught distinctly mid-stride, their movement frozen and immortalized. A figure stepping up to the curb and a livery driver are slightly blurred, reminding the viewer that this scene was one of constant movement, flux, and flow. Thus, street photography was born and the myth of New York City committed to light-sensitive silver. In the intervening years, New York City continued to be the epicenter of major photographic development, from the studio of Mathew Brady, which put away its gilded portraits of luminaries and invited pedestrians in to view the collected horrors of the Civil War, to the circle of photographic artists formed by Alfred Stieglitz, responsible for championing photography as its own unique art form, inextricably linked to the bold pathways
Town
of modernism.
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Andreas Feininger’s large-scale prints luxuriate in the atmosphere of Manhattan. In an early morning aerial view, Lower Manhattan (c. 1941), fog hovers over the buildings as traffic begins to swarm the avenues. In the evening, light glitters across the facades in Midtown Manhattan (1941), a human story behind each and every illuminated window. Dorothy Norman’s petite photographs New York Harbor (1932) and Brooklyn Bridge from the Boat to New Bedford (1932) reduce the city to a jewel held in the hand; these miniatures take viewers over the water, past the Brooklyn Bridge, gliding over the East River into the harbor. Marilyn Bridges and Tom Baril view the gleaming arcs of the Chrysler Building’s top floors from vastly different angles, two distinct visions of a city that is as varied as its inhabitants (Chrysler Building, N.Y.C., New York, 1988, and Chrysler Building, 1995, respectively). In Memorial Lights 9.11.07 (2007), Donna Ferrato turns her gaze toward another famous structure, the Twin Towers, memorializing its absence and the vast human loss by focusing on the gaping hole between buildings; an eerie beam of light soars upward, a testament to the lasting horrors of September 11th. This iconic New York City is the dream of sailors, visitors, aspiring actors, and future titans. It is what draws kids from Brooklyn stoops and small town streets, but it is, quite literally, a facade. Behind the glitter and the granite is a city of manifold lives and struggles, told through photographs.
The Iconic City No skyline is more immediately recognizable than New York’s. Even as the city changes, and buildings rise and fall, there is something about its brash density that identifies it in a glance. The jagged spires and shadowy canyons embody dreams that are as big as skyscrapers and become a global calling card for a certain will to succeed, no matter the personal cost. These photographs celebrate the iconic city, as both symbol and place.
Streetscapes and Signage
Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine ushered in a documentary tradition, in which a photographer with a camera could bear witness, articulating the faces of immigrants as particularly human, while not shying away from the harrowing circumstances of their homes and work.
Aside from Andreas Feininger’s night photograph Times Square (1942), these are local streetscapes, not “a visitor’s place.” Feininger ventures under the elevated subway in Elevated Trestle, Division Street (c. 1941), where storefronts compete for the limited daylight that filters between the tracks. Farther afield, at the edge
Far below the soaring skyline, the New York City streetscape is chockablock with handmade signs and advertisements, aimed at grabbing the attention of pedestrians rushing from one block to the next. Humor abounds in these images. Joel Meyerowitz pauses long enough to capture the movie marquee, Kiss Me, Stupid, as it hovers over an embracing couple. It is a moment of quick irony, observed on the fly, before Meyerowitz melts back into the flow of pedestrians that blur the foreground of the image (New Year’s Eve, NYC, 1965). Berenice Abbott photographed a larger than life-size chicken, perched above an awning, fronted by the words “Live Poultry.” Yet the whole apparatus is contained in wire, much like the unseen caged chickens inside, and echoes the fire escapes that march up the tenement facade on the right side of the frame (Poultry Shop, East 7th Street, New York, 1937, printed 1982).
The photographers of New York, New York: Photographs from the Collection are inheritors of these myriad traditions. Yet their own experiences, in the ever-changing landscape of New York City, ensure their visions are distinct, rarely glancing backward but always looking forward, capturing a city that reinvents itself on a daily basis. They depict icons and unknown corners, glittering buildings and dashed dreams, girls next door and young men in curlers.
of Brooklyn, Harold Feinstein photographed a Coney Island amusement park ride as it lit up the night, its motion condensed into a gleaming orb. The waiting riders below seem mesmerized, heads tilted up toward the glow and to the tiny sign that simply states “GYRO” (Gyro Ride at Night, 1946). Unlike Meyerowitz’s Manhattan crowd, rushing off to the edges of the frame, these Brooklynites are exactly where they are meant to be, stilled in the limpid ocean air of a Coney Island summer night. New York Portraits
Harold Feinstein introduces real-life counterparts to the characters from On the Town in his photograph Two Sailors on Subway (1947). The seamen slouch in their seat, their white uniforms glowing in the dim underground car. Their caps are tilted forward over their eyes, as if they have been up all night (on the town!) and are using the train ride as an opportunity for a cat nap before their next stop. They laugh and smile a bit sheepishly, aware of the photographer’s attentions. They are charming, young, hungover, and woefully out of place. Behind them, in softer focus, is true New York: women in day dresses and men staring stoically into the distance, the city on the move. Real life and real people populate the city streets, clubs, and living rooms in these photographs. They aren’t glamorous, they don’t break into song, although occasionally, as in Harold Feinstein’s Girl on Cyclone (1952), they let out a joyous yell. This and images like Larry Fink’s photograph of an upright bass player (New York City, April 1966) capture New Yorkers in a heightened state of being, suspended by the wobbly track of a roller coaster or the undulating rhythms of a jazz show.
More often, the photographers ask their subjects to pause, regard the camera and present themselves as citizens of this diverse city. Diane Arbus was notorious for her square format photographs, made with seeming unsophistication; people are plunked in the center of the frame with less care than a DMV photograph. Yet Arbus’ studied unartfulness is what makes these photographs disarmingly frank. Without the pushy orchestrations of elevated composition, they simply ask the viewer to look, to see. A Young Man in Curlers at Home on West 20th Street, NYC (1966) holds his left hand up by his face, a freshly lit cigarette poised between his manicured fingers. He stares at Arbus, who stares at him, her lens describing the curves of his penciled eyebrows, pouty lips, and hair curlers with equal interest. Arbus gives similar attention to family groupings in Russian Midget Friends in a Living Room on 100th Street, NYC (1963) and A Young Brooklyn Family Going for a Sunday Outing, NYC (1966). She studies body language and dress, and asks her viewers to draw conclusions about the dynamics at play, as well as question their own assumptions about the nature of the family portrait.
A quintessential New York photograph combines iconic architecture, everyday streets, and idiosyncratic people into one rapidly observed composition: the street photograph. Street photography reached its heyday with photographers like Garry Winogrand, who prowled the streets of the city looking for uncanny juxtapositions and unlikely occurrences. Photographs like Woman Nuzzled by Police Horse (1970) tend to 8
Photographers like Jerome Liebling and Chaim Kanner give their subjects more room to describe themselves, removing the confrontational element of Arbus’ portraits. Liebling’s Boy and Car, NYC (1949) places the young subject to the left of center, as he leans against a car and exchanges gentle glances with the photographer. Kanner’s white-clothed workers (Two Men Outside a Shirtmaker, 1989) look off-frame, which allows them to exist in the continuity of a longer moment than the photographic portrait. They perch on two standpipes, resting their feet on a five-minute smoke break, their bodies stilled between two open doorways that imply an imminent return to work. Street Scenes
unfold over a few beats: first an exchange between woman and mounted police officer, then the disdainful glance of a woman passing by on the left, and finally, the horse’s nose, pressed against the first woman’s chest, ostensibly right where the cop would also like to be. It has the rhythm of a well-crafted joke, more Lenny Bruce than Borscht Belt. Elliott Erwitt also looked for juxtaposition, but for far more lyrical effect, in New York (1949). In the shadowy rooms of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a bronze of Diana by Augustus Saint-Gaudens draws her bow, poised on one graceful leg, her arrow aimed at a silhouetted figure who recedes into a distant gallery. The figures echo and oppose each other, similar to Chaim Kanner’s Two Men on Street (1988), where two figures have passed on the street and head in divergent directions. A suited white businessman, his hair slicked back in the stockbroker style of the ’80s, strides toward the left, while a Black man in casual clothes and a cap heads toward the right. Kanner describes them as opposites, contained in a city that can hold multitudes.
Susannah Ray
is a documentary photographer and photographic educator who holds an MFA from the School of Visual Arts and a BA from Princeton University. Her long-form projects explore the relationship between people and landscape, and she often photographs at the intersection of city and water, capturing how New Yorkers’ lives are shaped by the waters that ring the city. Amid the challenges of access, infrastructure, history, and climate change, citizens find their own spaces for escape, leisure, and transcendence.
Susannah Ray is interested in sharing what is possible, the unexpectedly beautiful, and the resilience of both people and place.
The exhibition’s final photograph, 34 Leonard Street formerly Provenzano Garage (2007) by Donna Ferrato, depicts seven mud-splattered construction workers up to their knees in wet concrete. The succession of bodies, captured at a rakish angle, led to a view of the Woolworth building, which until 1930 was the tallest building in the world. Its wedding cake turret leans into the sky, framed by mid-century utilitarian brick buildings. Far from the Woolworth building’s neo-gothic architecture, the glittering glamour of Feininger’s Midtown towers, or the retro-futuristic gleam of Baril’s Chrysler building, Ferrato’s building-to-be is rising from muck, rebar, tarps, and the sweat-soaked bodies of anonymous workers. In one image, the city’s past, present, and future play out, a cycle of hopeful reinvention and hard reality that can never be disentangled. These street photographs also describe children at play, street musicians, cops on the beat, and dogs on a walk. They describe everything that might happen in a given second in New York, and remind the viewer that there is always more happening just around the next corner. The photographers spent lifetimes to craft their visions, returning again and again to photograph this “helluva town.”
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Guest
SusannahCuratorRay
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Hofstra University Museum of Art, gift of Lazarus Weiner HU84.25
,
in.
Berenice Abbott (American, 1898-1991) Poultry Shop, East 7th Street, New York 1937 From the portfolio Retrospective, 1982 Gelatin silver print, 23 x 18.25
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Diane (American,Arbus1923-1971)
Russian Midget Friends in a Living Room on 100th Street, NYC, 1963
Gelatin silver print, 14.25 x 14.5 in.
Hofstra University Museum of Art, gift of Steven Yager HU89.40
Hofstra University Museum of Art, gift of StevenHU89.37Yager
Diane Arbus (American, 1923-1971)
Gelatin silver print, 15 x 14.75 in.
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A Young Brooklyn Family Going for a Sunday Outing, NYC, 1966
Diane (American,Arbus1923-1971)
Hofstra University Museum of Art, gift of Steven Yager HU89.38
A Young Man in Curlers at Home on West 20th Street, NYC, 1966 Gelatin silver print, 14.75 x 14.25 in.
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From the portfolio Tom Baril/Selected Images, 2004 Gelatin silver print, 19 x 15.125 in.
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Hofstra University Museum of Art, gift of JosephHU2005.10.4Masheck
Tom Baril (American, born 1952) Chrysler Building, 1995
Marilyn (American,Bridgesborn1948)
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Hofstra University Museum of Art, gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU95.14.15
Chrysler Building, N.Y.C., 1988 From the portfolio Heightened Perspectives, 1990 Gelatin silver print, 18.75 x 14.75 in.
From the portfolio Master Prints, Volume II, 1985 Gelatin silver print, 22 x 14.75 in.
Hofstra University Museum of Art, gift of Susan and Steven HU86.95.4Ball
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Elliott Erwitt (American, born France, 1928) New York, 1949
Elevated
Andreas (American,FeiningerbornFrance, 1906-1999) Trestle,
Division Street, c. 1941 From the portfolio Vintage New York, 1987 Gelatin silver print, 32.5 x 25.5 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art, gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU88.8.5 18
From the portfolio Vintage New York, 1987 Gelatin silver print, 25.375 x 35.375 in.
Hofstra University Museum of Art, gift of Susan and StevenHU88.8.2Ball
Andreas Feininger (American, born France, 1906-1999) Lower Manhattan, c. 1941
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Andreas (American,FeiningerbornFrance, 1906-1999) Midtown Manhattan, 1941 From the portfolio Vintage New 1987 Gelatin silver 33.125 27.875 Hofstra University Museum of Art, gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU88.8.3
print,
in.
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York,
x
(American, born France, 1906-1999) Times Square, 1942
Andreas Feininger
Hofstra University Museum of Art, gift of Susan and StevenHU88.8.4Ball
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From the portfolio Vintage New York, 1987 Gelatin silver print, 34 x 25.875 in.
Harold (American,Feinstein1931-2015)
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Girl on Cyclone, 1952 From the portfolio Photographer’s Choice: Harold Feinstein — Decades Four, 1988 Gelatin silver print, 11 x 7.25 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art, gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU91.206.5
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Hofstra University Museum of Art, gift of Susan and Steven HU91.206.8Ball
From the portfolio Photographer’s Choice: Harold Feinstein — Decades Four, 1988 Gelatin silver print, 7.5 x 7.5 in.
Harold Feinstein (American, 1931-2015) Gyro Ride at Night, 1946
Harold (American,Feinstein1931-2015) Two Sailors on Subway, 1947 From the portfolio Photographer’s Choice: Harold Feinstein – Decades Four, 1988 Gelatin silver print, 7.5 x 10.875 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art, gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU91.206.10 24
Pigment on fiber print, 26 x 17.25 in.
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From the portfolio Tribeca, 10013
Donna Ferrato (American, b. 1949) Memorial Lights 9.11.07
Hofstra University Museum of Art, gift of Susan and Steven HU2014.20.6Ball
Hofstra University Museum of Art, gift of Dr. Monroe Kornfeld and Mrs. Edna Kornfeld HU2020.23
Chaim Kanner (French, 1943-2000) Two Men Outside of a Shirtmaker, 1989 Gelatin silver print, 8.75 x 5.75 in.
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Hofstra University Museum of Art, gift of Susan and Steven HU2001.15.1Ball
From the portfolio Jerome Liebling: Selected Images, 2001 Gelatin silver print, 10.125 x 10.25 in.
Jerome Liebling (American, 1924-2011) Boy and Car, NYC, 1949
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New Year’s Eve, NYC, 1965 From the portfolio Joel Meyerowitz: The Early Works, 1964-1970, 1999 Gelatin silver print, 8.875 x 13.325 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art, gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU2000.9.11
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Joel (American,Meyerowitzb.1938)
From the portfolio Dorothy Norman: Selected Photographs, 1995 Gelatin silver print, 3.625 x 2.75 in.
Brooklyn Bridge from the Boat to New Bedford, 1932
Dorothy Norman (American, 1905-1997)
Hofstra University Museum of Art, gift of Susan and Steven HU96.64.11Ball
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Dorothy (American,Norman1905-1997)
New York Harbor, 1932 From the portfolio Dorothy Norman: Selected Photographs, 1995 Gelatin silver print, 3.564 x 2.875 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art, gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU96.64.2
Untitled, c. 1965 From the series Women Are Beautiful Gelatin silver print, 8.75 x 13.125 in.
Garry (American,Winogrand1928-1984)
Hofstra University Museum of Art, gift of Jon and Nicky HU2009.8.14Ungar
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A Young Brooklyn Family Going for a Sunday Outing, NYC, 1966 Gelatin silver print 15 x 14.75 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Steven Yager HU89.37 A Young Man in Curlers at Home on West 20th Street, NYC, 1966 Gelatin silver print 14.75 x 14.25 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Steven Yager HU89.38
Poultry Shop, East 7th Street, New York, 1937 From the portfolio Retrospective, 1982 Gelatin silver print 23 x 18.25 in.
Russian Midget Friends in a Living Room on 100th Street, NYC, 1963 Gelatin silver print 14.25 x 14.5 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Steven Yager HU89.40
Chrysler Building, 1995 From the portfolio Tom Baril/Selected Images, 2004 Gelatin silver print 19 x 15.125 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Joseph Masheck HU2005.10.4 Verrazanno Narrows, 1993 From the portfolio Tom Baril/Selected Images, 2004 Gelatin silver print 19 x 15.125 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Joseph Masheck HU2005.10.6
East Side Portrait, 1936 From the portfolio Retrospective, 1982 Gelatin silver print 23 x 18.25 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Lazarus Weiner HU84.22
Diane Diane(American,Arbus1923-1971)Arbus,onceastudent
Exhibition Checklist
of Berenice Abbott, remains an influential photographer to this day, due to her signature square format photographs that incisively scrutinize their centered subjects. Despite their deadpan, almost family snapshot-like framing, Arbus’ photographs are anything but casual. Each sums up and sizes up their subject, placing them within the social context of 1960s America, as seen through Arbus’ distinct point of view. Her images were exhibited by The Museum of Modern Art in 1967, alongside those of Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander, in the landmark exhibition New Documents, which chronicled the shift of documentary photography from socially minded to more personally focused.
Berenice Abbott (American, 1898-1991) Berenice Abbott meticulously captured the transforming landscape of New York City, first working on her own and then, from 1935 to 1939, with support from the Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project. The photographs were published in 1939 as Changing New York, a visual compendium of streetscapes, architecture, and vernacular signage. Abbott also preserved and promoted the legacy of French photographer Eugène Atget, whose enduring images of Parisian streets and architectural details indelibly influenced Abbott’s photographs of New York.
Tom (American,Baril born 1952) Photographer and master printer Tom Baril uses a large-format film camera and positive/negative Polaroid film to capture the iconic features of the New York City landscape. His richly warm-toned prints evoke a feeling of nostalgia, the sepia shadows and golden highlights tying them to a style of photography that existed long before the structures in the photographs.
Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Lazarus Weiner HU84.25
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France, 1928) Born in Paris to Russian parents in 1928, Elliott Erwitt immigrated to the United States at age 11, on the eve of the Second World War. He has spent more than 70 years photographing in America, his vivacious eye finding sweet humor in daily moments and celebrity life. Many of his most beloved images home in on a signature juxtaposition that might have flitted by unnoticed were it not for his perceptive eye.
Midtown Manhattan, 1941 From the portfolio Vintage New York, 1987 Gelatin silver print 33.125 x 27.875 in.
Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Steven Ball
From the portfolio Photographer’s Choice: Harold Feinstein – Decades Four, Gelatin1988silver print 3.5 x 9.125 in.
Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU91.206.6
Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU91.206.5
Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU88.8.3 Times Square, 1942 From the portfolio Vintage New York, 1987 Gelatin silver print 34 x 25.875 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU88.8.4
Chrysler Building, N.Y.C., 1988 From the portfolio Heightened Perspectives, 1990 Gelatin silver print 18.75 x 14.75 in.
Elevated Trestle, Division Street, c. 1941 From the portfolio Vintage New York, 1987 Gelatin silver print 32.5 x 25.5 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU88.8.5 Lower Manhattan, c. 1941 From the portfolio Vintage New York, 1987 Gelatin silver print 25.375 x 35.375 in.
New York City, 1974 From the portfolio Master Prints, Volume I, 1985 Gelatin silver print 14.5 x 21.5 in.
Harold Harold(American,Feinstein1931-2015)Feinsteinwasbest known for his lifelong photographic chronicling of his birthplace, Coney Island, Brooklyn, NY. He was part of the socially minded cooperative “The Photo League,” which disbanded under the pressures of the McCarthy era. Feinstein and other postwar New York City photographers elevated the city as subject, seeing it in all its grit and romance, and have been loosely defined as the “New York School.”
Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU91.206.8
Man and Wife Drinking Beer, 1950
From the portfolio Photographer’s Choice: Harold Feinstein – Decades Four, Gelatin1988silver print 11 x 7.25 in.
From the portfolio Photographer’s Choice: Harold Feinstein – Decades Four, Gelatin1988silver print 9.375 x 6.25 in.
Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU91.206.3 33
Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU86.95.4
Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU86.94.4
Boys Running Into Surf, 1954
Marilyn Bridges surveys the landscape from the air, seeking the ways humans have written themselves into the landscape. Her work reveals the similar human hand behind ancient sites, rural land, suburban development, and hardedged cityscapes. Bridges has received National Endowment for the Arts, Fulbright, and Guggenheim fellowships and published eight monographs, and more than 90 major institutions collect her work.
Girl on Cyclone, 1952
New York, 1949 From the portfolio Master Prints, Volume II, 1985 Gelatin silver print 22 x 14.75 in.
(American,ElliottHU95.14.15Erwittborn
Marilyn Contemporary(American,Bridgesborn1948)photographer
Gyro Ride at Night, 1946
Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU88.8.2
From the portfolio Photographer’s Choice: Harold Feinstein – Decades Four, Gelatin1988silver print 7.5 x 7.5 in.
Andreas (American,FeiningerbornFrance, 1906-1999) Parisian born, Andreas Feininger studied both architecture and photography, eventually moving to New York with the outbreak of World War II. He became a staff photographer at LIFE from 1943 to 1962, and his focus on architecture and landscape differentiated him from the majority of LIFE photographers, who typically photographed people and daily life. He built his own specialized cameras, to depict the monumental landscape of New York City in accurate perspective, with exacting detail.
New York City, April 1966 Archival pigment print 19 x 12.75 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU2021.52 New York Street Musician, April 1966 Archival pigment print 12.5625 x 19 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU2021.50
Photojournalist(American,DonnaHU91.206.10Ferratob.1949)Donna
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Transvestite Performer Backstage at a Performance of the “Cockettes,” NYC, Vintage1971gelatin silver print 10 x 8 Hofstrain.University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Peter Chatzky HU2016.75 Policeman Talks to Little Boy in Diapers, NYC, 1978 Vintage gelatin silver print 10 x 8 Hofstrain.University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Peter Chatzky HU2016.84 Policeman Calls in Accident, NYC, Vintage1978gelatin silver print 7 x 9.375 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Peter Chatzky HU2016.85
Ferrato gained acclaim for her searing portrayal of domestic violence in the book Living With the Enemy
Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Steven Ball
Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU2014.20.5 Billion Dollar View, Church and 56 Leonard St., 2008 From the portfolio Tribeca, 10013 Pigment on fiber print 26 x 17.5 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU2014.20.3
West Broadway Liquor Store Bar, 2006, from the portfolio Tribeca, 10013 Pigment print on fiber paper 26 x 17.75 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Steven Ball (American,LarryHU2009.3.1Finkb.
34 Leonard St. formerly Provenzano Garage, 2007 From the portfolio Tribeca, 10013 Pigment on fiber print 26 x 20.5 in.
New York City, February 1965
. Yet her keen eye has landed on other subjects, including her Manhattan neighborhood, Tribeca, which during her residency gentrified from a post-industrial artist’s outpost to a luxury-shopping mecca. She witnessed the devastating impacts of September 11th and the aftermath that lingers over the cobblestone streets.
Teenagers on Beach with Radio, 1949 From the portfolio Photographer’s Choice: Harold Feinstein – Decades Four, Gelatin1988silver print 7.25 x 10.875 in.
Memorial Lights 9.11.07 From the portfolio Tribeca, 10013 Pigment on fiber print 26 x 17.25 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU2014.20.6
1941) Larry Fink is well represented in the Hofstra University Museum of Art collection, primarily through his insightful series Social Graces, a vivid depiction of social class and ritual in 1970s America. He has twice received Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships and an International Center of Photography (ICP) Infinity Award, and he has influenced generations of photographers with his teaching. The photographs in the exhibition, from an early point in his career, show Fink before he cemented his signature style of square format photographs, and instead reveal a young photographer working through his ideas about class and social performance in the street photography style typical of the 1960s.
Archival pigment print 19 x 12.3125 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU2021.51
Leonard Brooklyn-born(American,Freed1929-2006)Leonard
Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU91.206.4 Two Sailors on Subway, 1947, from the portfolio Photographer’s Choice: Harold Feinstein – Decades Four, 1988 Gelatin silver print 7.5 x 10.875 in.
Freed documented the struggle of communities against discrimination and violence, from the Civil Rights Movement to the lives of German Jews to gay liberation. His sensitive black and-white photographs elevated the strength and conviction of his subjects and brought him into membership with Magnum Photos in 1972.
Men Kissing During Gay Liberation Week, NYC, 1970 Vintage gelatin silver print 8 x 10 Hofstrain.University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Peter Chatzky HU2016.73
print 13.25 x 9.125 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of George Stephanopoulos
Two Men on Street, 1988 Gelatin silver print 9 x 6 Hofstrain.University Museum of Art Gift of Dr. Monroe Kornfeld and Mrs. Edna HU2020.22Kornfeld
While Leon Levinstein’s photographs received modest recognition during his lifetime, they create a vivid and immersive rendering of New York City street life that has endured and was given posthumous exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2010. The exhibition title, Hipsters, Hustlers, and Handball Players, economically and poetically describes the subjects that animated Levinstein’s images. His framing never omitted his presence, but rather acknowledged his own movement through the flux and flow of city life. Coney Island, 1954 Gelatin silver print 11.5 x 8 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Herb Hochberg HU2007.5.2 Coney Island, 1980 Gelatin silver print 15.5 x 21.375 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Herb Hochberg
who was his professor at Columbia College, as well as with many other artists, writers, and public figures, publishing 40 books throughout his career. His unobtrusive style allowed his subjects to speak for themselves, and he regularly photographed for LIFE magazine, as well as Time and Look NYC, Vintage1956/1958gelatinsilver
(American, anthropologistcollaboratedPhotojournalist1930-2019)KenHeymanwithrenownedMargaretMead,
Ken Heyman Leon Levinstein Joel Meyerowitz
From the portfolio Joel Meyerowitz: The Early Works, 1964-1970, 1999 Gelatin silver print 8.875 x 13.375 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU2000.9.1
New Year’s Eve, NYC, 1965
(American, 1910-1988)
Jerome(American,JeromeHU2007.5.1Liebling1924-2011)Lieblingwasborn in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up under the hardships of the Great Depression –an experience that moved him to document human struggle. He refined his vision during his membership in the Photo League, a cooperative of like-minded, socially concerned photographers. His teaching influenced students, including famed filmmaker Ken Burns, for more than 40 years. Boy and Car, NYC, 1949 From the portfolio Jerome Liebling: Selected Images, 2001 Gelatin silver print 10.125 x 10.25 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU2001.15.1
From the portfolio Joel Meyerowitz: The Early Works, 1964-1970, 1999 Gelatin silver print 8.875 x 13.325 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU2000.9.11 35
(American, b. 1938) While Joel Meyerowitz eventually became known for his large format, beautifully composed color photographs, he began his career as a black-and-white street photographer, working with a small 35mm camera in a more off-the-cuff style. Like many street photographers, Meyerowitz had an eye for the uncanny and the unexpected, capturing the idiosyncrasies of New York City with loving appreciation. His later color work took him to Cape Cod, Tuscany, and ground zero, and he has made forays into biographical film.
Gelatin silver print 8.875 x 13.375 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU2000.9.5 Fifth Avenue, NYC, 1968
From the portfolio Joel Meyerowitz: The Early Works, 1964-1970, 1999
Kanner is a lesser-known photographer who sold his photographs on the streets of Paris, New York, and Los Angeles. His impeccable gelatin silver prints feature crisp tones that celebrate his observant eye. Through his lens, New York City is magnificent and inhospitable, each image frame containing two figures who are at odds rather than connected.
From the portfolio Joel Meyerowitz: The Early Works, 1964-1970, 1999 Gelatin silver print 8.875 x 13.375 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU2000.9.6 JFK Airport, 1968
Central Park, NYC, 1969
Born(French,ChaimHU2008.6.5Kanner1943-2000)inFrance,Chaim
Two Men Outside of a Shirtmaker, Gelatin1989 silver print 8.75 x 5.75 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Dr. Monroe Kornfeld and Mrs. Edna Kornfeld HU2020.23
by Alfred Stieglitz, who championed photography’s rightful place amongst the arts. Through their relationship and her involvement with his gallery and his extended circle, Norman developed her own voice, creating intimate portraits of artists, writers, and notable figures, as well as observing the New York City landscape. The two images in the exhibition explore the luminosity of light as it bathed the waters and sights of New York Harbor.
Dorothy Dorothy(American,Norman1905-1997)Normanwasmentored
New York Harbor, 1932 From the portfolio Dorothy Norman: Selected Photographs, 1995 Gelatin silver print 3.564 x 2.875 in.
Brooklyn Bridge from the Boat to New Bedford, 1932 From the portfolio Dorothy Norman: Selected Photographs, 1995 Gelatin silver print 3.625 x 2.75 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU96.64.11
Garry (American,Winogrand1928-1984)
Garry Winogrand defined street photography for every succeeding generation of photographers. His cutting assessment of human activity as it played out in public spaces is unparalleled: streets, parks, zoos, airports, rodeos, and protests were among the spaces where he saw irony, comedy, and tragedy, often within a single frame. He is known for his quip, “I photograph to see what the world looks like in photographs,” a frank recognition of the transformative power of image-making, less a celebration of the world as it is, but instead as it is seen.
Untitled, c. 1965 From the series Women Are Beautiful Gelatin silver print 8.75 x 13.125 in. Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Jon and Nicky Ungar HU2009.8.14 Woman Nuzzled by Police Horse, 1970 From the series Women Are Beautiful Gelatin silver print 9 x 13 Hofstrain.University Museum of Art Gift of Jon and Nicky Ungar HU2009.8.15 36
Hofstra University Museum of Art Gift of Susan and Steven Ball HU96.64.2
Hemmer, Angelina Olivo, Bella Palaia, Adallis Pantry, Josie Racette, Caitlin Treacy
37 HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY SUSAN CHARLESPresidentPOSERG.RIORDAN Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs COMILA SHAHANI DENNING Interim Senior Vice Provost HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF ART KAREN T. ALBERT KRISTENDirector AssistantALEXANDRASeniorJACKIECommunicationsJONATHANCollectionDORATAManagerFIDISDirectorGEISAssistanttoDirectorGIORDANODirectorofExhibition and Collection EILEEN HannahUNDERGRADUATECeliaGRADUATEDirectorAMYMuseumSARAMuseumMCKENNAEducatorSCHAEFEREducatorG.SOLOMONofEducationASSISTANTSGlime,MargaritaLopezASSISTANTSCalista,MakaylaEgolf,Corinne
