Tag: NYC photography

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The time-lapse history of Manhattan in two minutes

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This two-minute time-lapse film illustrates the 400-year transformation of Lower Manhattan from a Dutch village to a modern metropolis, highlighting the impact of new technologies on evolving methods of urban representation. The film draws from seventeenth-century drawings to modern photography, showcasing how each generation perceived and depicted through art the city’s growth and the changing world around them. VIEW PROJECT >

Demolishing Public Space at New York Penn Station

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The untimely and short-sighted demolition of old Penn Station in 1963 symbolizes the eroding quality of public space in New York City. In the conflict between developers and community voices in New York, the narrow considerations of economic profit triumphed over the broader community’s demands for historical preservation and high-quality public space. In this essay written for historian Evander Price’s summer 2020 class I took at Harvard University, I reflect on what the loss of this landmark reflects about the destructive nature of American capitalism. VIEW PROJECT >

Excavating Old New York Penn Station

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In this computer model and series of image comparisons of past and present, I walk viewers through New York Penn Station. I identify the current and contemporary camera angles from which historical photos were taken in 1911.

The accompanying historical essay explores the historical significance and transformation of this trains station. Originally a grand architectural masterpiece from 1910 that embodied neoclassical design and values, the station was demolished in the 1960s, in order to build a modern structure that lacks its predecessor’s grandeur. VIEW PROJECT >

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New York: subway city of immigrants

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As northbound Broadway dips down to the valley of 125th Street, the subway soars over the street. The subway viaduct is a jumble of steel slicing through the orthogonal city grid. The 125th Street viaduct is a massive arch, 250 feet from end to end, two hundred tons of mass channeled into four concrete pylons, resting on the solid bedrock of Manhattan schist. The subway is the intersection, where the underground and aboveground worlds of New York City converge. VIEW PROJECT >

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Walking in Manhattan

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This project features a portfolio gallery of my drawings, watercolors, paintings, and photographs of Manhattan island. The portfolio is divided into ten “walks” over the chapter structure of ten “days.” Each “day” features some of my artwork about a different neighborhood of Manhattan: Chinatown, SoHo, East Village, West Village, the High Line, Madison Square, Midtown, Central Park, Riverside Drive, Morningside Heights, Harlem, and Washington Heights. VIEW PROJECT >

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Urban Garden in Newark

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By Myles and Maia Zhang
Our family’s reflection and photo essay on the annual tradition we have of planting flowers in a vacant lot.

“In time, we will wind our way and rediscover the role of architecture and man-made forms in creating a new civilized landscape. It is essentially a question of rediscovering symbols and believing in them once again. […] Out of a ruin a new symbol emerges, and a landscape finds form and comes alive.”

– John Brinckerhoff Jackson VIEW PROJECT >

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Chinatown: a living neighborhood

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In this visual essay of drawings, paintings, and photos I explore my walks in Manhattan Chinatown. Chinatown is both static and dynamic: Static in its resilience against gentrification, dynamic in its cultural interplay between past and present, immigrant and American. VIEW PROJECT >

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South Bronx

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A visual essay of artwork and photos from my experience of walking in the South Bronx.

Strolling in the Bronx, I am arrested by the inner-city grid that stretches mile after mile. Block after block, street after street, a never ending treadmill of bodegas, tenements, hair salons, C-TOWN supermarkets, strip malls, and laundries. In the treadmill of the city grid, I become an explorer lost wandering. I retrace my footsteps. VIEW PROJECT >

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Panoramic artwork of the New York City skyline

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When I gaze across the Hudson River from New Jersey, the soaring towers, glassy behemoths, and dark canyons of Manhattan instill me with awe. The broad expanse of the city juts out of the water with crenelated and jagged skyscrapers as if proclaiming: “I am here to stay. Come sun, wind, or water, I will remain. I will grow.” VIEW PROJECT >