Alice Attie: Harlem On the Verge [Hardcover]

Alice Attie (Photographer), Robin D. G. Kelley (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2003

The colour portraits in this book document both the people and buildings of Harlem on the eve of great change. Gentrification and the influx of large chain stores are replacing small businesses, store fronts, memorials on walls and other visual evidence of the complex range of cultural identities had woven into the streets of their neighbourhoods. With a sense of both dedication and desperation (to beat the developer's clock) Alice Attie has produced a record of a world rapidly being lost.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Though insufficiently edited, Robin D. G. Kelley's introductory essay about these vivid and entrancing color photos radiates intelligent enthusiasm for Attie as a social documentarian who captures Manhattan's black and Latino city-within-a-city when it seems about to be transferred from its traditional, predominantly poor denizens to a bourgeoisie who may be multicultural but aren't and won't be poor. Kelley is very good at pointing out the traces of reconnoitering class imperialism (the scrawled "Derrida" amid other graffiti) and the poignant scrawlings (the moved-to message sprayed over an impromptu elegy) of indigenous retreat. But before or after seeing the photos with Kelley, peruse them for their formal properties, which are bold and masterly. Every composition is oriented upon a cross--a strong central vertical axis and a strong horizontal one above the center of the frame--though a visible crossing of two lines is seldom present; this property unifies the whole suite of photographs, and any symbolic accents it adds are usually pertinent. Illumination is equal throughout the frame, establishing a rock-solid ground on which the figures deploy and refusing to "privilege" any object in the frame. Colors are utterly equally weighed; no reds or yellows or blacks punch out or retreat from the eye. Image after image evokes the response, "Man! That's a beautiful picture." Now look at the people and things Attie shows us. Unforgettable. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

A changing Harlem holds still for the memory....With sympathy and an open eye, Attie tells us about...America. -- Robert Frank

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: The Quantuck Lane Press (September 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971454876
• ISBN-13: 978-0971454873
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 10.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #118,034 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Take the A Train, October 9, 2009

By 

Robin Benson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Alice Attie: Harlem On the Verge (Hardcover)

Just after the turn of this century Alice Attie made a bus journey through Harlem and noticed that a Disney store had opened (shown on page forty-five but now closed I believe) and from this casual observation these intriguing photos emerged. She wanted to capture the feel of the real Harlem before gentrification took over.

The seventy-eight photos reveal a colorful Harlem that shows a strong community feel. So many of the storefronts featured are clearly owned and run by the owners, their amateurish yet honest signage in complete contrast to the slick plastic and neon fronts that more commercially minded premises might think essential for business. I thought the storefront photos, frequently with individuals posing in front of them, came off best throughout the book because the compositions are so simple and straightforward, they just work. Strangely this simplicity is rather contrasted by a few photos that do look rather confusing: like the crowd scene outside the Old Navy store (page forty-three) or the severely cropped couple in a car (page thirty-seven).

The book is the usual excellent Quantuck Lane Press production. Designed by Katy Homans and 175 screen printed by Mondadori, Verona. The only thing I slightly miss are more looking-to-the-horizon street photos. Page eight has a shot taken from the middle of a street with the parked cars and buildings receding to the distance, maybe four or five others like this would have cemented all storefront and other photos together.

***SEE SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Images Of A Harlem Gone By, April 28, 2005

By 

Book 'Em Danno - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alice Attie: Harlem On the Verge (Hardcover)

I'm not from Harlem but it makes me no less sympathetic to the gentrification of the place that birthed the "Black Renaissance". This book has a very nice foreward that will capture in words what the artist is trying to say in her photographs.

I have made a few visits to Harlem and saw some of what Ms. Attie portrayed in her photographs - national chain stores like Old Navy and H&M, cops harassing street vendors just trying to make it, and the worst of all, a large majority of the older stores that have been in the community for decades boarded up. It's very sad. I just wish there would have been more photographs, I didn't want it to end. I also noticed that on or near page 65 is a portrait of 3 children, one little girl has on a pink shirt. This portrait was also used on the cover of the book, "American dream : three women, ten kids, and a nation's drive to end welfare" by Jason DeParle. Just thought I'd point that out. Good job Ms. Attie!!