Changing New York

On Friday, Jody asked why New York always looks better in black and white. I don't know the answer, but I couldn't agree more. As evidence, I offer the really interesting show at the Museum of the City of New York called New York Changing. The photographer Douglass Levere revisited the amazing black and white photographs Bernice Abbott took of New York in the 1930s as part of a WPA project. Abbott's pictures were published in the book Changing New York. It was reissued a few years ago in honor of the centennial of Abbott's birth; the new edition includes meticulously researched and fascinating endnotes about the buildings in the photographs. Levere, for the current exhibit, used Abbott's camera and, as closely as possible, recreated Abbott's shots, factoring in the location, angle, and time of day. Of course there have been dramatic changes--Abbott photographed streets that simply don't exist anymore. But I was surprised by the fact that so much had also stayed the same. New York changes, but I think less than many places in the United States. It's a fast-moving, hard-living, money driven city, but a lot of us love our heritage and want New York to look like the New York we fell in love with in the movies of the 30s and 40s and 50s.