Philip Trager: New York in the 1970s

(Hardback)

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The luminous and compelling photographs in New York in the 1970s capture the essence of a city in a way best described as "place portraiture." Trager's images present the architecture of Manhattan with time - defiant clarity and beauty. Although Trager selected his subjects for aesthetic and visual reasons-rather than from an historical or documentary point of view - with the passage of time his distinctly imaginative photographs have also acquired value as historical documents. The negatives for the images in this book, only recently rediscovered, had originally been archived for printing but Trager began other projects before any prints were made. The photographs in New York in the 1970s were taken at the same time as Trager's timeless Philip Trager: New York, published by Wesleyan University Press in 1980, in which the photographer depicts the city "as a solitary figure, always aware of the 'enveloping sky'." New York in the 1970s reveals Trager's more concentrated attention to the interaction between the city's architecture and the dynamics of the street.

Reviews

[Trager] presents Manhattan in a way that's nearly devoid of all life, yet also luminous and dream-like, shattering the conceptions of the city during that low point.-- "Real Clear Life"
Philip Trager celebrates the dramatic dignity and spirit of the city during one of its most troubled eras.-- "Huck"
Newly rediscovered photographs by Philip Trager are brought together in this new monograph to reveal a majestic city, shot in black-and-white.--Eliza Williams "Creative Review"
Trager documented a city that to a certain degree no longer exists. It is a paean to the past...a nostalgic photographic revelation of the city as it was, and the magnificence it still possesses.--Richard Rivera "New York Journal of Books"
Trager's images present the architecture of Manhattan with time-defiant clarity and beauty.--Stephen C. Pinson "L'oeil de la Photographie"
Whether he is capturing New York City skyscrapers, modern dancers or his wife, Connecticut-based fine art photographer Philip Trager majestically captures what inspires him.--Erica Moody "Washington Life Magazine"