In this photo, Feininger depicts an aerial view of Manhattan. Within this depiction, Feininger highlights the contrast between chaos and order in the city. The photo features a stunning composition of towering skyscrapers within the grid layout of the city. By capturing this scene at an offset angle, Feininger also exaggerates the soaring heights of the city as the angle allows the viewers to see the massiveness of the buildings within the city. Much like this photo, New York City is an interesting and vast combination of chaos and order, and Feininger successfully illustrates this within the photo.

This photograph illustrates the wonder the city holds within a single moment. Feininger captures a dynamic black and white photo of a train moving over a street in New York City. The juxtaposition of the shadows and the sunlight below the railroad tracks create an interesting composition that shows that an instant in New York City contains beauty and tranquility. Through this composition, the photo emphasizes an important aspect of living in New York City – taking a moment to pause within the commotion of the city reveals the wonder the city holds and the peace it can create.

This iconic photograph shows up many times when people discuss the history of New York City because of its relevance to our skyscrapers and the people (mainly immigrants) that built them. The men on the beams are all Irish natives that came to Manhattan in search for a better life during grim economic times. Hine actually took the photo during the Great Depression. I feel like this shows how desperate people were to get work, regardless of the safety issues. As you can see, none of the men are wearing any type of safety gear, so just one misstep while they are working could lead to their deaths.

This photograph emphasizes the bleakness associated with child labor during the early 1900s. A breaker boy is a child who separates good quality coal from other impurities to feed the burners and engines of the technology of the age of the steam engine. Hine exposes the harsh working conditions of these breaker boys in an attempt to fight for social reform, a very vital subject in New York’s history. Just looking at the soot and dirt on their emotionless faces shows how horrible child labor really was, and this picture helped bring that issue to the public.

USA. New York City. Manhattan. An alley in the Cuban quarter. 1935.

This photo by Henri Cartier-Bresson exemplifies the true meaning of a candid shot. The boy is focused on something in another direction. Yet, the framing of the image and the detail of the objects and background surrounding the boy makes it seem as though the audience is standing right in front of the boy.

This photo appeals to some of New York’s building attraction. The buildings are as much a focus as they are a background. Cartier-Bresson  shows geometry in the lines of the steps and the cylindrical shaped columns the men lean against.

This photo is worthy of our attention because it again shows how society inhumanely treats and abuses children in New York. At such a young age, this boy is being subjected to a role of cleaning and repairing the shoes of an adult. Rather than receiving a valuable education, children such as this boy have to work in unskilled trades (and breathe in toxic chemicals such as the shoe shine dye).

This photo is worthy of our attention because it shows the harsh labor that children endured in New York City. We can see how the weight of all those hats in the containers probably weighs more than the child itself and is detrimentally affecting the growth of his “undeveloped” muscles, which are constantly be strained and teared from lifting heavy objects.

Dear Seminarians: This is a quick note to welcome you to the course. We’ll be using this site throughout, so please have a look around.

 

AO