Yann Arthus-Bertrand : New York vu d'en haut : Une histoire d'architecture Yann Arthus-Bertrand photographie rarement les villes, mais New York est l'une de ses préférées. Il en aime la folie, les excès et la transparence lumineuse. Fidèle à son style audacieux il a su admirablement jouer de la lumière et des angles pour capter des images spectaculaires, insolites et vertigineuses : détails architecturaux perchés au sommet des gratte-ciel, reflets dansants le long des façades de verre, espaces et ambiances presque surréalistes. Ouvrage de photographie mais aussi document d'architecture, cet album passionnera tous les amateurs de New York en leur permettant de découvrir de nouveaux visages de la ville-vertige

Beate Wedekind : Intérieurs new-yorkais Cet ouvrage est le premier à présenter une telle diversité d'intérieurs new-yorkais. Nous visitons entre autres un atelier de Greenwich Village, un loft aménagé dans une ancienne chocolaterie de Soho, un palais style Louis XIV au luxe féerique, une magnifique villa centenaire et des résidences ultramodernes. Des célébrités comme Leo Castelli, Wolfgang Joop, Isabella Rossellini, Steven Spielberg et Donald Trump ouvrent ici pour nous les portes de leurs appartements privés

Pierrette Fleutiaux : Les étoiles à l'envers : New York, Photoroman "J'ai pris l'avion pour New York, je suis allée à Ground Zero. [...] J'ai accompli des gestes rituels, qui semblaient venir de quelque fond archaïque de coutumes que j'ignorais moi-même. Essentiellement je déambulais, revenant matin et soir, déchiffrant les messages sur les grands panneaux accrochés aux grilles, posant des bougies, puis stationnant sans raison auprès de quelqu'un qui semblait stationner aussi, achetant tout ce qui se vendait à même le trottoir ou dans les magasins, livres au bénéfice des familles des pompiers morts, photos prises et vendues par des témoins directs, épinglettes faites de petites perles de couleur représentant le drapeau. En accrochant l'un de ces pin's à mon manteau, j'avais sans m'en rendre compte placé les étoiles à l'envers, un passant m'a demandé sans animosité si c'était fait exprès, je n'ai pu deviner s'il trouvait ce renversement approprié, sa question ne semblait pas demander de réponse, semblait plutôt faire partie d'une stupeur générale, on ne savait plus le sens normal des choses." (extrait)

Berenice Abbott : Changing New York A l'instar d'Atget qui a photographié le Paris de début du siècle, Berenice Abbott a décidé de fixer sur pellicule les grands bouleversements architecturaux de New York, en train de s'ériger en archétype de la ville moderne.

Paul Goldberger : New York Changing: Revisiting Berenice Abbott's New York Photos du Livre Real progress is something that needn’t be commented on; it is simply self-evident. That’s the principle behind this elegantly understated book, which places photographs taken by photographer Berenice Abbott in the mid-1930s alongside present-day photos of the same locations shot by Douglas Levere, whose work has appeared in such magazines as Forbes and People. In some cases, the contemporary images are remarkably similar to the Depression-era ones; take, for instance, the New York Telephone Building, which, aside from a new name (Verizon Communications Building), seems unchanged by time. Others are utterly different. In 1937, the Wanamaker’s department store occupied the corner of Broadway and east 9th Street, and its façade was covered in billboards; today, a 15-story apartment building and diner stand in that same space. Some duos are similar, but with one altered element—like the absence, in 2002, of an elevated railroad track blazing through Herald Square, as it did in 1936. It’s clear that Levere took care to re-shoot the photos from virtually the same angles that Abbott used—which is much easier said than done. The text that accompanies each pair of photos underlies the difficulty of Levere’s task. For a photo depicting Fifth Avenue shoppers dashing around, Levere had to rent a double-decker bus, but since he couldn’t get permission from the city to stop in traffic, "the bus driver feigned an emergency, placing orange cones on the road and opening the bus hood to allow Levere to take his photograph at precisely 1:10 P.M." This is exactly the kind of scrupulous attention to detail that makes this book work so well. 170 duotone photos. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Leonard Freed : New York Police On pourrait croire que la télévision a définitivement supplanté l'image fixe ou que le cinéma est le plus fiable des instruments de narration. Il semble pourtant qu'il n'en soit rien. Qu'il s'agisse du quotidien le plus banal ou d'événements exceptionnels, les grands photographes dans leur subjectivité même, témoignent d'irremplaçable façon. La collection Photo Poche se veut une histoire de la Photographie. Photo Notes est une collection d'histoires, racontées en photographies. En termes techniques, l'image qu'on tire d'un négatif porte le nom d'épreuve, un nom lourd de sens. Photo Notes sera aussi une collection d'épreuves. La misère et la mort sont leur quotidien. Être policier dans une grande ville - être flic à New York - c'est vivre au coeur du drame, affronter chaque jour la violence et la corruption, c'est dialoguer avec des proxénètes ou des drogués, c'est ramasser les clochards et les enfants perdus. Leonard Freed a suivi, plusieurs mois durant, ces "cops" si peu aimés et son témoignage, d'une rare puissance émotive, dépasse les stéréotypes. Par-delà le tragique des situations, il dit la difficulté de maintenir l'ordre, il dit la solitude et la compassion.

Martha Cooper : R.I.P.N.Y.C. : requiescat in pace à New York City En des fresques commémoratives chargées d'émotion, des artistes graffeurs ont dressé, sur les murs des ghettos de New York, des épitaphes à la mémoire de ces jeunes fauchés par la violence. Ces murs peints s'avèrent une véritable chronique de la violence dans cette ville américaine (2000 homicides par année). Ils reflètent aussi la transformation des tagueurs du métro en artistes du mémorial

Sean Weiss : New York Architecture & Design Aucune ville au monde n'est aussi dynamique que New York, qui semble se renouveler constamment par elle-même. Un panthéon multiculturel d'architectes a ces 15 dernières années conçu et dessiné des projets inédits dans cette ville mondiale qui attire les talents des quatre coins du monde. Que ce soit les aménagements intérieurs d'hôtels signés Philippe Starck, le magasin Prada d'OMA, l'annexe du musée d'art moderne de Taniguchi ou les innombrables projets réalisés par les grands urbanistes américains : ce guide donnera un aperçu frappant à tous ceux ou celles qui s'intéressent à l'architecture de cette métropole.

David Stravitz : The Chrysler Building: Creating a New York Icon, Day by Day (en anglais) Photos du Livre While buying some equipment from an elderly photographer, Stravitz, a designer and product developer who holds more than 100 patents and 400 copyrights, stumbled onto a collection of negatives taken by the commercial and industrial photographers Peyser & Patzig that chronicled the construction of the Chrysler Building, the art deco masterpiece on New York City's 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Introduced by New York Times "Streetscapes" columnist Christopher Grey, these 170 duotones-some lush and some grainy-begin with the lot's nondescript previous building, which was demolished by 1928, and continue through the massive girding of the uncompleted tower, swarmed over by teams of bricklayers and captured in long shots as it neared being "ready for occupancy in the Spring of 1930" (as one billboard reads)-a year or so ahead of the rival Empire State Building. Images of offices with stiff-looking bureaucrats and deluxe interior shots of marble, chrome and frescos top things off. The photos are catalogued in the back, leaving them uncluttered by extraneous text-it's all pure loft and shimmer from the golden age of skyscrapers. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Donald Albrecht : The Mythic City: Photographs of New York by Samuel H. Gottscho, 1925-1940 Photos du Livre Daring, bold, dramatic, towering, impossibly glamorous: this is how we imagine New York in its golden age, and this is how Samuel H. Gottscho, the preeminent architectural photographer of his generation, captured it. Through his lens, New York of the 1930s became the quintessential modern metropolis, a round-the-clock city in which night was as charismatic as day. Rigorously editing out the Depression-weary city's more seamy aspects-its tenement slums, breadlines, and soup kitchens-Gottscho presented a dreamlike Gotham of skyscrapers and penthouse luxury that literally and figuratively glowed with glamour's sheen. His gimlet eye focused on the bold interplay of sun and shadow, dramatizing the chiseled forms of Manhattan's signature skyline and bridges. The Empire State and Chrysler buildings, Rockefeller Center, the Plaza, the George Washington Bridge-Gottscho brought them all to sparkling life. In this beautifully produced, landmark book, historian Donald Albrecht presents 175 of Gottscho's extraordinary images of the city, from the Battery to Harlem. An introductory essay tells the story of this legendary photographer, describing his working methods and philosophy, while placing his work in the broader context of photographic history. The exhibition The Mythic City will open at the Museum of the City of New York in the fall of 2005. Published in association with the Museum of the City of New York.

Eric Peter Nash : Manhattan Skyscrapers Photos du Livre Whether or not New York City, in all its teeming chaos, strikes readers as exciting or abominating, its superb urban architecture is undeniable. Life in the Big Apple is so fast-paced that most of the time the buildings that fill the island go unnoticed. Manhattan Skyscrapers offers the chance to leisurely peruse the stunning skyline, one building at a time, by compiling 75 of the most noteworthy towers in Manhattan (and one in Brooklyn). Spanning about a 100-year history and organized in chronological order, the book treats each skyscraper to its own section replete with photographs, commentary, and history. And the shifting architectural styles are fascinating to see in one volume. These tall buildings can appear intimidating, dwarfing the people who live in their midst, but this book offers readers an intimacy with these immense structures. There are details here that readers could easily miss in person; for instance, built into the lobby of the gothic-style Woolworth Building of 1913 are gargoyles depicting F.W. Woolworth counting his fortune and the builder in a monk's hood. The photographs are beautiful, with clear perspectives that seem almost impossible to get on the crowded streets of New York

Christopher Payne : New York's Forgotten Substations: The Power Behind the Subway Photos du Livre All over New York City, hidden behind unassuming historic facades, sits the gigantic machinery of the power stations that once moved the subways. For over a century, the 125,000-pound converters and related equipment of the substations remained largely unchanged, but in 1999 the last manually operated substation was shut down and since then they have been systematically dismantled and sold as scrap. In 1997, author Christopher Payne was introduced to the substations by an official of the Metropolitan Transit Authority's Power Division. Since then, he has rushed to photograph, draw, and write the history of these amazing buildings and their machines before they are completely gone. With virtually unlimited access to the substations, he has developed an intimate bond with the buildings that most people know only in passing. His beautiful photographs and detailed drawings bring these lost treasures to life, while his illuminating text tells their fascinating story. Anyone interested in the art of industrial America or the New York subway will find this book a delight.

Allan Tannenbaum : New York Photos du Livre This addition to the brick series with its approx. 800 pages portrays New York in all its beauty – both styled and raw. The metropolis on the Hudson River is worthy of numerous superlatives, and Allan Tannenbaum, photographer and New Yorker out of conviction, takes us on a picture tour of his city. Emblems such as the Empire state building, Central Park or the Brooklyn Bridge are displayed in masterful photographs as are the most interesting districts of "The Big Apple": from the stylish art and nightclub scene of the "Meatpack" area, through the almost village ambience of Greenwich Village, to the hectic pace of the Financial District. The New York brick offers an up to date illustrated volume, excellently photographed by one who really knows New York. This book by Tannenbaum is just as inspiring as "New York in the 70s".

Allan Tannenbaum : New York in the 70's Photos du Livre This book is a collection of fascinating photographs taken by Allan Tannenbaum, the chief photographer of the SoHo Weekly News, documenting an exciting era in New York City – the 1970s. The city was bursting with creative activity and things were happening all over. The Arab Oil Embargo was affecting the economy, and the Vietnam War was eroding respect for government. Pop art gave way to performance art, rock ‘n’ roll succumbed to disco music, sex was accepted and even glorified. New York in the 70s paints a complete and unadorned portrait of this very special era.

---

---