Overview

I am not sure there is any other pair of monosyllabic words in the English language that evokes as powerful a sense of place as Wall Street, except, of course, New York itself. So writes famed architectural critic Paul Goldberger in his introduction to one of the most important photographic books on New York City to appear since 9/11: David Anderson's On Wall Street. During the 1970s, a lot of glass-and-steel, boxlike buildings were going up in New York City. David Anderson realized that the architecturally elaborate and stylistic buildings of the late nineteenth century through the 1930s that defined Wall Street would never be made again. He thus embarked on a remarkable twenty-year project (from 1980 to 2000) to document Wall Street's classic architecture before further changes were made in the area, including the demolition and destructive renovation of too many historic structures.

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9781938086007

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Reviews

David Anderson's poignant photographs capture the coldness, power, and impregnability of the mythical Wall Street. Devoid of the flux of street movement and crowds, the monuments speak. Creatures keep watch, frozen in stone, while surprising traces of decay and delicate detail suggest the contingency, even frailty, of human existence. Paul Goldberger's masterful introduction guides us as well in seeing and appreciating this historic citadel of American finance --Gail Fenske, author of The Skyscraper and the City: The Woolworth Building and the Making of Modern New York and Professor of Architecture at Roger Williams University From 1980 to 2000, photographer David Anderson documented Wall Street's architecture as few others have. Through an extensive range of black-and-white images whose focus is equally on the historic character and iconic nature of the buildings, a real sense of this famous place emerges. I compare the look and feel of Anderson's photographs to some of the great urban photographers of all time: Berenice Abbott, Eugene Atget, Paul Strand, and, more recently, Thomas Struth and Bob Thall. On Wall Street will be an immediate classic that not only appeals to the aesthetic of architects, historians, and photographers, but also functions at street level for those who love cities everywhere and, especially, New York --William Wylie, author of Cararra and Professor of Art at the University of Virginia An architectural shift left Manhattan with an unusual blend of buildings. On Wall Street: Architectural Photographs of Lower Manhattan, 1980-2000 is a collection of black-and-white photography from David Anderson, snapping photos on the aftermath of the new construction past the 1970s, offering a snapshot of the twilight of the twentieth century with soulful black-and-white photography, capturing the details of these buildings. On Wall Street is a must for historical and architectural photography collections; highly recommended. --Midwest Book Review Anderson had been working as a cinematographer for at least fifteen years before becoming an architectural photographer in the early 1980s. He explains in his preface that he decided to document Wall Street's buildings, knowing that the particular aesthetic and harmony of their design was not being replicated in newer buildings and wishing to capture their distinctive geometry and details. The project took him twenty years. This volume presents his black-and-white images full page, with an introductory essay by architecture critic Paul Goldberger. --Protoview

David Anderson's poignant photographs capture the coldness, power, and impregnability of the mythical Wall Street. Devoid of the flux of movement and crowds, the monuments speak. Creatures keep watch, frozen in stone, while surprising traces of decay and delicate detail suggest the contingency, even frailty, of human existence. Paul Goldberger's masterful introduction guides us as well in seeing and appreciating this historic citadel of American finance.

Author Information

David Anderson was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1943 and was raised there. At age seventeen, he showed his photographic work to Alfred Einsenstaedt at Life Magazine, who encouraged him to begin his career at the New York Daily News. After serving in the U.S. Army as a cameraman, including duty in Vietnam, from 1969 to 1983 he was a cinematographer based in New York City who specialized in commercials and documentaries. He also photographed two independent films directed by artist Nancy Graves, including Isy Boukir (1971), which was acquired for the collection of films at the Museum of Modern Art. Since 1983 he has worked as an architectural photographer and is represented by the Yancey Richardson Gallery, of New York City. His photographs are in numerous public and corporate collections, including American Airlines, AT&T, the Brooklyn Museum, the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal, Citicorp, Deutsche Bank, Equitable Life Assurance Society, the Library of Congress, the Museum of the City of New York, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, among others. After living in New York City for fifty years, Mr. Anderson moved in 2010 to the Hudson River valley of New York.

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