Photo Break: Here is New York
A Continuous Lean points out this lovely photo series of New York My Big Fat Greek Wedding film in the 1930s from the New York Public Library.
Suitable for Murder hd Nutcracker: The Motion Picture film 


The Pornographer download The photos pair nicely with E.B. White’s 1948 essay, “Here is New York.”
There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born there, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size, its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter–the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something. Of these trembling cities the greatest is the last–the city of final destination, the city that is a goal. It is this third city that accounts for New York’s high strung disposition, its poetical deportment, its dedication to the arts, and its incomparable achievements. Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness, natives give it solidity and continuity, but the settlers give it passion. And whether it is a farmer arriving from a small town in Mississippi to escape the indignity of being observed by her neighbors, or a boy arriving from the Corn Belt with a manuscript in his suitcase and a pain in his heart, it makes no difference: each embraces New York with the intense excitement of first love, each absorbs New York with the fresh yes of an adventurer, each generates heat and light to dwarf the Consolidated Edison Company….
Check out the whole set on Flickr.
February 11th, 2009 at 8:35 am
These are the very images that ran through my head (and in turn that I had others run through) as I read Michael Chabon’s pean to the comic age. Have you read much of his work? Stunning, reminded me of something I’d been missing in fiction. The Adventures of Cavalier & Klay made for excellent escape within an escape reading (from Atlanta airport and outward) and soothed my culture shock once I was home.
My hope is that you’ve read this fine work or will read it in such a timely fashion as I did, having recalled the many recommendations (I had) received for this quality work.
Best of the New Years to you, Ron, thanks for these photos!
D
February 11th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
this brings back memories of a book i edited of NY fotos…. i think we used that exact quotation in the text…
February 13th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Funny you mentioned Chabon David, I love that book. Read it a few years back. He’s one of my favourites and I’ve read almost everything by him.