Customer Reviews

New York Then and Now (Then & Now)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book of photos should really be called Manhattan - Then And Now since all of the photos are of this Burough of New York. The book begins with photos of lower Manhattan and continues slowly uptown showing just about all of the important landmarks. This book was published after the 9/11 tragedy and some emphasis has been placed in showing the area in lower Manhattan before and after the terrorist attack.

A city that has changed and continues to change with the speed and energy that New York does, invites books like these. Annette Witheridge's "New York: Then and Now" is a gorgeous collection of photos from days past juxtaposed with recent shots. For me there are two effects of this juxtaposition: one is a sense of loss. Many of the old buildings, now gone, were beautiful. But, more strongly, is the sense of admiration for New York's eternal dedication to progress. "New York: Then and Now" gives the reader an appreciation of the labor that has gone into the building of the greatest city on Earth.

PS--Most photo books have great photos, but the print quality is mediocre. The print quality of this book is marvelous.

Rocco Dormarunno, author of THE FIVE POINTS

Many old New York City Photos and one of the same picture as it looks today. Great for people that enjoy comparing things that were to things that are today.

I love the idea of then and now photos in NYC. I've picked up a few books of this kind over the years and it's amazing to see how much the city has changed and what has remained.

This book is nice on the surface but has some big flaws. For example, the author did not match up the "now" photos with the classic shots, so it's hard to compare the time periods. Additionally, in many cases she doesn't even provide the same view; you are simply looking at 2 completely different areas. This really defeats the purpose of doing a "then and now" book.

I also thought her notes were really trite. Rather than highlighting particular structures that remained or what was replaced in a given set of photos, we get very superficial comments like "this area is now home to many swanky stores". This type of caption is utterly useless, and unfortunately, prevalent throughout the book.

Finally, I'm not sure if it's on purpose but it appears that several of the photos were doctored with a blurring technique to give the appearance of streaks of light in traffic. Not sure if this was intentional, but it looked a bit amateurish nonetheless.

Overall, I was disappointed with the book. It really feels like a book someone did as a hobby rather than a well researched project.

If you compare this book to the Boston series or some other cities series, the 'now' or current views of NY were not done as well in terms of viewpoint. A lot of the photos do NOT match up well and you'll find many closeup views compared to wide angle views, so you'll be hunting a lot to find landmarks.

I have the first edition (c. 2000) and there is a gross error on pps.52-53, Bleeker and Thompson Sts. The photo on the left ('then')shows a Federal style four-story red brick building with canopy roof on second floor and recessed two top levels. The photo on right ('now') is described as the same building having been sandblasted "...second floor canopy is gone, but the facade has hardly changed." Clearly, the photo on the right is a six-seven story building from a more modern era (perhaps glazed bricks white/grey) with huge windows in comparison and a flush facade (no recesses)containing some kind of inner courtyard with four street openings. Not a difficult thing for any mediocre editor to catch! (Perhaps this was fixed in the further editions--hope so.)

Fun book for history and architecture buffs, but could've been so much better. I'd say it had been done in a hurry with little editing/checking.