New York Changing

From Flickr, some rights reserved by Rares M. Dutu.

New York Changing: Revisiting Berenice Abbott’s New York is a collection of black and white photographs from Douglas Levere who, a fan of photographer Berenice Abbott, goes through New York and, in homage, re-photographs many of the same places. Abbott’s photography is  from the 1930s: she first started documenting the changes she saw in New York after living abroad for some time. Levere’s photography captures that New York, in many ways, has continued to change. He found many of the exact spots where Abbott stood, on the same day and time, and took the photos once more, with the same photographic equipment. In fact, Levere used a camera that had been originally created for Abbott, but she had never picked up from the store where she bought it. How serendipitous!

The black and white photographs from the 1930s New York, and even present-day (really, 90s and early 2000s), are fantastic to look at in their own right, but seeing them side by side in this book is a much more interesting artistic story to watch unfold about New York, that never-sleeping city. The photographs are all located within the five boroughs.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who likes city or historical photography, or for the person who just loves New York. While most people don’t like reading forewards or introductions, I must insist you read Levere’s introduction to his project if nothing else written in the book.