Jay Maisel's New York [Hardcover]

Jay Maisel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 7, 2000

A master photographer's love affair with his home city

New York has been the subject for countless photographs. But few have had a feel for the city that Jay Maisel has.

Jay has been photographing New York since the '50s. His home is located far downtown, but he has shot every part of the city -- from street level, looking down from rooftops and bridges. His aerial shots are moody, poetic, amazing by turns.

This book is filled with spectacular sights -- marathon runners on bridges, sunlight and moonlight reflecting off mirror walls onto the river, the awesome mass of skyscrapers bunched against blue skies. It's also about New York's people. It has the most surprising faces and details you'll see in any book about cities, gleaned from a lifetime of being on the scene.

Jay Maisel's New York is one of the most beautiful books of the year.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Maisel can best be categorized as a corporate mystic, in business for his heart and soul as well as his wallet. His photographs are equally at home in big-stakes advertising, private collections, annual reports, galleries and magazines. Still, there is no gainsaying Maisel's commitment to his craft, and this collection continues his palatable work on cities like Jerusalem and San Francisco. Maisel's clean and colorful shots run from panoramic aerial sweeps to more intimate closeups, including a head shot of Lady Liberty herself, which, predictably enough, serves as the cover shot. A dozen approaches to the skyline give way to the placid facades of gentrified East Village apartment buildings. Pigeons, cops, Gay Pride marchers, kids, ball players and hanger-outers Maisel finds on the streets round things out. Although the Brooklyn-born photographer gets about as close to New York as the average episode of Friends, his enthusiasm is palpable, and it saves the book from being just a well-catalogued calendar. (Oct. 31)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Maisel's clean and colorful shots run from panoramic aerial sweeps to more intimate closeups ... his enthusiasm is palpable. (Publishers Weekly 20001009)

Captivating ... I can thoroughly recommend this picture book. It should be one of the books a photographer's library. (Canadian Camera 20010601)

The book's pictures capture the beauty and the terror of the City ... [with] Maisel's trademark visual wit. (Rusell Hart American Photo 20011001)

Instincts of a journalist and a storytellers eye, Maisel captures the beauty, ugliness and contradictions that make up New York. (David Middleton January Magazine 20001201)

This is the first time these beautiful photographs have been placed in book form. Maisel's use of color and light are second to none. (Jim Gordon Vancouver Lifestyle Magazine 20001101)

Images that reveal a deeper, less obvious side of the city. [Maisel] is strongest capturing seemingly insignificant details. (Doral Chenoweth III Columbus Dispatch 20010207)

The most surprising faces and details you'll see in any book about cities. (Antiques and the Arts Weekly 20010323)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Firefly Books; First edition (October 7, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1552094960
• ISBN-13: 978-1552094969
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 10.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,064,876 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New York Finally Has The Photographer It Deserves., August 28, 2000

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Jay Maisel's New York (Hardcover)

Jay Maisel's New York is the single richest and most alluring photo book about my city that I have seen. It is especially satisfying because my New York is captured and served up by a true photographic genius.

Going through the pages, I find myself gasping and smiling all at once.

Jay has that rare ability to hit your eyes with a one-two punch. First, he serves up a moment or fleeting gesture and frames it with a simple stunning composition made with colors.

He is able, page after page, to make a reader's stomach flutter in recognition of moments of light that most of us only "thought" we saw.

He's a master in the profession.

Gary Gladstone

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unique urban sights and ordinary days in New York activity, February 5, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jay Maisel's New York (Hardcover)

New York history and culture has been covered so often before, who can offer a different perspective on the city? Photographer Maisel does, in Jay Maisel's New Yorkm a title which captures both unique urban sights and ordinary days in New York activity, from immigrants on a rooftop to Gay Pride Day celebrations. Full-page color photos are vivid and striking whether they be of oddly-brilliant building paint jobs or individuals.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not his best work...still nice though., March 20, 2008

By 

deepcloud - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jay Maisel's New York (Hardcover)

I love Jay's style, and have been a fan for years, which is strange because he was primarily an advertising photographer. Most advertising photogs are strictly in it for the money, and their work shows it. Jay though, always seemed to put his heart into even his $100,000 Amex campaigns. I remember reading that he would tell clients if an assignment wasn't going well, something along the lines of, "Let's make it something that I would do for free anyway, even though you're paying me, that way I'm happy, and you're happy." Strange then, that I find that stuff much better than the stuff in this book. There are still gorgeous pictures, but if you want to see some amazing stuff, try to find an old copy of Communication Arts from the eighties, the Photography Annuals, to be precise. Maybe 1985, 1986, etc. AMAZING stuff. You will understand why other photographers freaking WORSHIP the man. I was slightly disappointed when I first received this book. It doesn't grab me, and some of the transparencies seem to be in bad shape. Oh well, hopefully his website will be up again soon.