This photograph, named Closing Up a Summer Cottage 1957, shows how a family is packing up is leaving their summer vacation home.  This picture was taken in Long Island.  A mount was used to take this picture.

The thing that probably caught my attention was the intensity of the color.  Even during this time, color was this intense.  In addition, it was taken in Long Island.  I felt some sort of connection to this, since I lived in Long Island.

To me, this isn’t the closing of a cottage.  It is instead the opening to their regular life.  They had just spent a summer in the cottage, so they are returning back to life.  If it was closing of summer, then it wouldn’t happen ever again, but since it’s a summer cottage, the family definitely visits it every year.  Thus, the context should be opening.

This was probably one of the coolest exhibits.  Listening to the ‘chanting’ was definitely a different experience, but one worthwhile.  This picture along with the audio was made to remember Imam Husayn, who was the grandson of Mohammed the Prophet.  This shows the battle where Imam Husayn was killed by the forces of the Umayyad.  This picture also shows the battle between the Sunni and Shi’a, a conflict that still occurs now.  I found that extremely interesting because of how long a conflict could last.

What I really liked about this this was just how much was going on in this picture.  In one part of it, there is a whole group of people praying, while in another scene, an offering was taking place.  To me, this represented how at this time, everything was in a chaos, and that you could not capture it all in one picture, rather with little bits of each event.  In addition, having something visible while listening to it just made the feeling of fighting more intense, especially since it was a different language.

Check out some highlights from the MoMa!

Our group headed to the Sculpture Garden first to view the art outdoors. This was my first time at the MoMa, so these pieces were my first impressions of the museum. This was my favorite work of art if that’s what it’s called. It looked like a Tetris piece transformed into an oversized block. I think its simplicity and bold stance makes it fall into the “modern art” category. This was a perfect preliminary piece to serve as an introduction of what to expect inside.

While the tour was going on about the African Power Structure, this statue caught my eye.  At a first glimpse, it looks pretty simple, but when I went for a closer glimpse, I noticed alot of detail.  Firstly, the whole artwork is very detailed, from the face to the body, to the child resting on the mother.  Next the wood looked very high quality, meaning this structure was definitely important.

If you take a closer look at the ‘chair’ that she is sitting on, you will notice that it really isn’t a chair.  Instead, it a 2 legged stool, with her two front legs acting as the legs of the chair.  In reality, this is impossible, unless the chair is glued to the person, but of course, since this is art, it is possible.  It just struck me how this figure was defying gravity.

P.S. This artwork had alot of security! As I moved my hand in to capture a better shot, the alarm went off, again proving it’s significance.

This was by far my most favorite work of art in the museum. The winter scene is beautifully constructed with clouds hovering above the snow covered roofs. As a Brooklynite myself, this canvas appealed to me. I would never even be able to imagine how Brooklyn looked like almost 200 hundred years ago during the winter, my favorite season. It’s very surprising to see houses, especially the yellowish beige one on the right, that look like something I could find in my neighborhood. It is truly a beautiful scene and sends of a holiday vibe for me.

My first impression of this photograph was the perceived notion of the American Dream that everyone strived for in the 1950s. I thought of that perfect family with the nice little suburban house, car, kids, and a of course the family dog. This made me think of the age of conformity during the 1950s and Levittown, Long Island. Thus, I wasn’t too surprised when I read that this was a picture of a family’s summer cottage in southern Long Island in 1957.

This is the only thing I was permitted to take a picture of before having to place my camera into my book bag. This was not only shocking, but also very irritating because it’s ironic how photography is prohibited in this museum especially. I wondered if this was a policy solely for the current exhibits or a general museum rule. I purposefully chose this museum due to my interest in photography.

I was expecting to see works of international photographers with breathtaking landscape photos or other styles. Instead, there were these two exhibits, The Mexican Suitcase and Cuba in Revolution, which I knew nothing about. The Mexican Suitcase was most intriguing because it showcases recovered images from the Spanish Civil War that were considered to be lost since 1939. The pictures present a chronological timeline of the war and a closer look at the lives of the people struggling to survive.

Located on 97 Orchard Street in the Lower East Side is the Tenement Museum. This museum contains exhibits depicting the life that immigrants lived and the environment they lived in.  Usually, a family of 8-10 people live in 325 square feet of space.  Unfortunately, visitors cannot roam around freely through this museum.  Instead, there are guided tours for each floor.

The tour I went on was Getting By.  This tour included two completely different rooms.  The first room we visited was occupied by Nathalia Gumpertz, Julius Gumpertz, and their four children. 

The family experienced a very interesting story. One day, Julius Gumpertz left for work, and from that day on, he never returned.  It was not until THIS year when they found out that he had moved to some sort of retirement home, and had died single.  Theory has it that he was embarrassed that he could not support his family, so he had to abandon them.  Natalia thus transformed one of her rooms to a dress tailoring room, and sold dresses for $2 each.  The rent per month was $10, but Natalia received $8 a month from a pension plan Julius had invested in.  Her life can be considered fortunate, because eventually, she moves out to the Upper West Side after receiving a vast amount of $600.

The next apartment that we visited was occupied by the Baldizzi family, during the Great Depression.  They had first come to the United States illegally, so they crossed the border into Canada, and later reemerged in the Lower East Side.  The father was a carpenter, and made cabinets, but since it was during the Great Depression, not many people even considered buying cabinets.  He later turned to going door to door trying to find some labor.  At the end of this room, we actually got to hear the daugther of the family who lived in this tenement.  Her description of the tenement just made the exhibit that much more worthwhile.

If you go inside the museum, you can see the contrast between the two rooms.  The first room has essentially two windows for all three rooms, with the kitchen having no window and the bedroom having no window.  The second apartment had two windows per room.  This is because after the 1900’s, it was decided that houses without windows was a hazard to people, and that it was a right for people to have accessibility to air and light.  In addition, since time had passed, the second apartment even had a sink, a bathtub, and lights since the time period was much more technologically advanced.  The first room only used candles and oil lamps.

Finally, the guide took us to the third apartment, which revealed the tenements before restoration.  This was what the other two rooms looked like before restoration took place.

As you can see, since these tenements wre blocked off for a certain period of time, the walls and floor started to crack due to water damages and other chemicals.  In addition, in the second picture, you can see the sign that says “Pants- 1.50”.  When the tenement owners stopped renting the tenements to immigrants because it was too expensive to fix up the place, they decided to make the upstairs a warehouse for products that would be sold downstairs.

The tenement museum captures the life that people lived as immigrants or illegal immigrants.  It was definitely not luxurious, but it was the only option people had.  To see other exhibits, visit the museum at 108 Orchard Street, New York, NY, 10002.  The times it is open is: