New York, The Elevated, and Me
Artist
Ilse Bing
(American (born Germany), 1899 - 1998)
Date1936
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsOverall, Image: 7 1/2 × 11 1/4 in. (19.1 × 28.6 cm)
Overall, Paper: 11 1/8 × 14 1/8 in. (28.3 × 35.9 cm)
Overall, Mat: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
Overall, Paper: 11 1/8 × 14 1/8 in. (28.3 × 35.9 cm)
Overall, Mat: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
ClassificationsPhotography
Credit LinePurchase, from the Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., Photography Fund
Object number2001.3
Terms
- Chrysler Building
- New York City
- Self-portrait
- Black
- White
On View
Not on viewLabel TextIlse Bing American (b. Germany, 1899-1998) New York, the Elevated, and Me, 1936 Gelatin-silver print Museum purchase, Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., Photography Fund 2001.3 Like most photographers of the day, Ilse Bing mastered the fine points of technique and design on her own. Her natural preference for asymmetrical compositions, tight cropping, and steeply angled perspectives appears in her 1936 masterpiece, New York, the Elevated, and Me. In it she captures the very essence of the modern city-the Manhattan skyline centered on the Chrysler Building-from an elevated train station. The rushing diagonals of the station's roof and railing, echoed in the line of row houses nearby, give visible shape to the speed and pulse of the city beyond. Bing's own image is skillfully reflected in the circular glass of the scale at right. With this clever detail, she not only documents her role as an urban photographer-as the creator of the work on view before us-but places herself in the very midst of the city, an enthusiastic apostle of modernity.
Benedict J. Fernandez
1968; printed ca. 1989
