Photographer Barbara Mensch’s rediscovered photo archives and
interview tapes capture symbolic transformations of Lower
Manhattan. Many of these images are published here for the first
time. The photographs evoke the passage of time by dividing the
images into three parts: the 1980s, the 1990s, and the new
millennium (2000 and beyond). The photographer shares with the
viewer: “I would shoot ruins of buildings, the demolition of
famous waterfront saloons, ancient alleyways, and, in some cases,
nineteenth-century buildings destroyed by mysterious fires. There
were images of floods and other calamities/catastrophes in Lower
Manhattan, culminating with 9/11. These photos captured what had
been, what no longer exists. They served as my visual timeline.
What did the passage of the many decades reveal to me? What
dynamics were in my images of the same streets I repeatedly walked
for years?” The author’s images from the Fulton Fish Market in
the 1980s document the generations of immigrants and their children
pursuing a gritty American Dream next to the Brooklyn Bridge.
Photos from the 1990s present images of floods and fires that
paralyzed the area, juxtaposed with continued bulldozing to clear
the way for luxury housing. Politics reshaped Manhattan’s skyline
by encouraging new commercial shopping, food, and restaurant
destinations. This restructuring marked the beginning of the end of
downtown’s blue-collar origins and white-collar replacements,
challenging us to ask, “What was lost?” The seminal event of
the 2000s, September 11, 2001, reinforced downtown’s rebirth as
the global economic engine with no room for the past. Also included
in this section is an interview with an insider privy to the Mafia
leadership of the Fulton Fish Market during Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani’s opportunistic crusade against them in the 1980s. Dan
Barry, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, offers a poetic and
insightful tribute to the artist and photographer. “Definitions:
‘falling off’ suggests a decline in quality or quantity,
‘falling off’ suggests the passage of time or changes over
time, ‘falling off’ suggests a detachment, an alternative path
to a questionable destination, ‘falling off’ suggests a
separation, ‘falling off’ suggests something that comes to
pass.”
General
Imprint: |
Fordham University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
August 2023 |
Authors: |
Barbara G. Mensch
|
Foreword by: |
Dan Barry
|
Dimensions: |
286 x 267mm (L x W) |
Pages: |
116 |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-5315-0439-7 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
1-5315-0439-6 |
Barcode: |
9781531504397 |
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