The Brooklyn Bridge - Alexander Schinis
Bridges — while New York City has many of them, the Brooklyn Bridge stands out from amongst them as an almost iconic symbol of the City. Above are seen two different pictures of the bridge, the first as it is depcited by artist Childe Hassam and the following being a picture of the actual modern day bridge. Both representations were produced from nearly the same viewpoint, and we can see that both bridges are nearly identical, with a few exceptions.
As seen in Hassam’s painting, the Bridge itself is more simple, yet more austere, than the modern bridge. It seems to loom in the background, wreathed in fog, appearing to be simple, powerful, and even cold. Hassam captured, too, the hustle and bustle of the bridge crossing folk, but as we can see, he gave them no faces and did not fill them with color; rather, we see the forms of people, somewhat indistinct, passing onward to their unknown destinations. The artist seems to be making a statement about the nature of the city that the bridge is located in.
Conversely, in the modern photograph, we see the bridge bathed in sunlight on a beautiful sunny day. There is foot traffic on the bridge, but the faces are clearly shown, and the people in the picture are wearing color as opposed to the black and gray of Hassam’s painting. The viewer can see some clear discrepancies between the two.
What can be inferred from this? To me, it seems clear: New York City has changed since Hassam’s time, from a rather grim, uninviting city to what many consider to be the very capitol of the world itself.
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Cultural Map
"The Original Topography of Manhattan Island from the Battery to 155th Street" From Report on the Social Statistics of Cities, Compiled by George E. Waring, Jr., United States. Census Office, Part I, 1886. (Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, University of Texas-Austin)
