New York Sights: Visualizing Old and New New York (Paperback)

When we think 'city', we think New York. From downtown to uptown, no other urban space can claim such a famous skyline or such intensely varied street-life. It is a city that dazzles with its constant visual stimulation.Lavishly illustrated, New York Sights considers the formative period when a nostalgically evoked 'Old New York' transformed into 'New New York', ultimately becoming the modernist city of the twentieth century. Drawing on photography, film, and painting, the author considers the changing skyline, the grid-plan, the growth of the elevated railroad, the homes of the leisure classes, and city streets. Among the artists discussed are: Alfred Stieglitz, Jacob Riis, Georgia O'Keefe, John Sloan, Childe Hassam, and George Bellows. He also looks at the post World War II-period and the shocking visual prospect of a New York skyline without the Twin Towers.