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Product Details
Series: Empire State Editions
Hardcover: 144 pages
Publisher: Fordham University Press; 1 edition (May 1, 2014)
Unlike other photographers of the abandoned, the work of Christopher Payne has always been about the delicate balance between human presence and physical structure. His study of the Steinway Factory in Astoria, Queens was simultaneously a conceptual exploration of abstraction, an architectural analysis, and how Steinway workers factor into the production space. Each of the workers he photographed had a story, and together, making a piano was like a choreographed dance.
Payne’s recently released book, North Brother Island: The Last Unknown Place in New York City is clearly an evolution of Payne’s particular type of photographic discovery. Of course, there are the perfectly framed images of North Brother Island’s infamous crumbling hospitals and of its industrial gantry. Then there are the interior shots of medical rooms whose ceilings look like they might fall any second.
But where his work goes beyond the abandoned photography genre is Payne’s methodological tracking of changes on North Brother Island across seasons. Unlike typical trespassers, Payne had access through the New York City Parks & Recreation Department to photograph the island over the course of a year. With vintage images set side by side with present-day, another underlying theme in these photos of North Brother Island is the continuing presence of humans even into today.
With essays by Robert Sullivan, author of the fantastic New York City book, Rats, and Randall Mason, a professor at PennDesign, North Brother Island: The Last Unknown Place in New York City is truly a book for urban explorers and New York enthusiasts.
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The photos are haunting and beautiful. This is a great coffee table book. I stayed up late last night reading this...highly recommend for yourself or as a gift.
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This "coffee table" book answered so many questions I had formed when I lived in New York City several years ago and I plan to take the brief tour when I return. Who would have known that so close to the urban rush of the City, there is this paradox from the past! The myriad photos and the poignant story are truly gifts to everyone who has never considered the possibilities of seeing a glimpse of how "we" might have found some of this area a hundred years or more in the past. My ancestors came to Long Island from Halifax in the 1600s and I can now really appreciate the natural beauty they must have seen as they landed on the shore and began to explore their newly chosen homeland. This book is truly a work of wonder - not your everyday reading selection by any means, but a generous gift for the imagination and appreciation of those of us who seek to know and understand our past from the viewpoint of the what we see now! Thank you 7-great grandparents for coming to New York!
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Really enjoyed the pictures and comments on a small island between the Bronx and Manhattan that has seen varied use over the years. I had first become aware of it while watching a documentary on the General Slocum. While pictures of ruins and natural reclamation are absorbing the book would have been improved by pictures of the people and the spaces during its actual varied uses; for instance as a village for GIs and their families following WWII.
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I spent the first 4 years of my life living on North Brother Island. My father was going to NYU law school at the time and he worked part time at the ferry station. I went to a preschool that was available for the children of service people who were going back to school on the GI Bill. Although I live in California, when I return to visit NYC, I always take the Circle Line Tour so I can once again see North Brother Island. The pictures and narrative were wonderful. I only wish there was more information/pictures about the island's brief history as a refuge for our WW !! veterans and their families.
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Wow! I lived in the city and never knew this Island existed so after reading the history and looking at the pictures in this book I started researching other islands and found out there are many island off the coast of New York. There is even a South Brother Island. I think that when a book makes you curious enough to want to know more that is a great book. Good Job.
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Fascinating photostudy right on New York's doorstep. Imagine the tens of millions who've looked right past the island and never known what happened there. Validation perhaps that there are still mysteries and stories all around us, if only you take a closer look.
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Saw a post about this book on FB and it intrigued me, so I ordered it. So glad I did! The history is like a story and the photographs are incredible! I'd love to visit butt am secretly glad it's off limits. Great book!
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This item: North Brother Island: The Last Unknown Place in New York City (Empire State Editions)
