In 1985, Brian photographed the streets of the Meatpacking District, a desolate and mysterious place. In 2013, he went back and photographed it again, recreating many of the shots for a fascinating "before and after" effect. Those stunning, full-color photos are now collected in Metamorphosis: Meatpacking District 1985 & 2013.
A self-publishing venture, the book needs your help--Brian has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the publication. Please give your support. Just $50 will get you a signed copy:
I got the opportunity the write the foreword for the book. Here's the first and last paragraph. To read the rest, well, you'll have to buy the book:
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great project !
ReplyDeleteThe Meatpacking District had a sense of dignity more so than it does today. Just because wealth enters the area does not make it morally righteous, quite the opposite.
ReplyDeleteAlways interesting, seeing how areas and places change.
ReplyDelete...El Rio Mar, walking there and seeing no one else on the street on any weeknight?
ReplyDeleteGoing to Hellfire and Click and Drag/Jackie 60/Mother's (depending on the night the name changed, even tho it was the same club), smelling the dried blood, hearing the relative quiet, seeing the tranny hookers hanging out on the corners and at the bus stop on 14th and Hudson, trying not to get my high heel caught in the cobblestones. Those are my memories of what used to be a great, blue collar by day, black leather by night neighborhood, a place that could only have existed in a pre-Bloomberg New York.
ReplyDeleteWhat also kills me is how some new place will displace an old, established place that had real grime and real memories and real workmanship in its real bones and then the new place will install an imitation "vintage" look.
ReplyDeleteBecause even these rich hacks know that the character of the old places made people feel good and so want to be there. The drive is to destroy the real, but then imitate it with expensive, over-night "faux".
Fine scribin' thar, Jeremiah -- poetry!
ReplyDeleteBEAUTY intro sir.....but, SERIOUSLY, the SMELL is gone?
ReplyDeleteWe are doomed.
...watch the latest episode of Girls, where the lass gets some jack and races to MPD to buy a fancy new frock, the frock in the window. That's what it is now.
ReplyDeleteI had,a job a security guard that ended at midnight. I would go to 14th and eigth.and draw the transsexuals. What a wild free time that was. (Early 90's.)
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