4x5 transparency scanned on Hasselblad Flextight X1 by Ed Pollard-2010.

New York, The Elevated, and Me

Artist Ilse Bing (American (born Germany), 1899 - 1998)

CultureAmerican | German

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)

InscribedSigned and dated top right corner

Credit LinePurchase, from the Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., Photography Fund

Object number2001.3

Not on view

DescriptionThis is a gelatin silver print of the New York City skyline (the Chrysler Building pictured), signage, and a public viewing telescope with Ilse Bing shown inside the scope.

Label 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. ProvenanceIlse Bing, 1936-1990s; Edwynn Houk Gallery, NYC; Museum Purchase, 2001. Exhibition History"Silver Images: The Photography Collection at 25," Alice R. and Sol B. Frank Photo Galleries, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., November 5, 2003 - August 2004. "History of Photography," Alice R. and Sol B. Frank Photography Galleries, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va, Fall, 2001. "Women of the Chrysler: a 400-Year Celebration of the Arts," Large Changing Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., March 24 - July 18, 2010. "Cities of Light: Photographs from the Chrysler Collection," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, February 15 - October 21, 2012.Published ReferencesNancy C. Barrett. ILSE BING, THREE DECADES OF PHOTOGRAPHY. New Orleans: New Orleans Museum of Art. 1985: p. 83.