When David Stravitz bought around five hundred glass negatives from a New Jersey photo shop in the late seventies I bet he didn't realize what a nice little earner he was onto. This treasure trove of images has so far produced two books: the amazing The Chrysler Building: Creating a New York Icon Day by Day and now 'New York, Empire State'.
Both books follow the same format, page after page of very detailed architectural photographs of the city in the first fifty years of the last century. This book has a hundred images (thankfully in 175dpi) taken by commercial photographers Peyser and Patzig probably for architects and builders as a record of their endeavors.
It is the detail in the photos that makes the book so fascinating. Taken on eight-by-ten glass negs after carefully selecting the right position. They reveal street scenes and buildings where you can read the road signs and study the detail work on skyscrapers that would be impossible to see from street level. Nearly all the photos are of commercial property though near the end there shots of tenements, shops, sport arenas and Coney Island. Needless to say many of the buildings shown came down years ago.
Each picture has the name of the building or city area and Christopher Gray adds more detail on six pages at the back of the book and this is where I felt the reader has been badly let down by the publishers. There are 130 photo pages yet only sixteen have page numbers, which makes nonsense of Gray's page numbered captions and the three page comprehensive index. Strangely page 105, with a whole page photo does have a number and this, I assume, was to be the case with every page but someone screwed up! Very frustrating (and do I get a refund?).
I recently reviewed a similar architectural photo book about New York City with 170 stunning photos taken by Samuel Gottscho between 1925 and 1940. Included are some marvellous Manhattan night photos as well as shop and house interiors. His work helped to define the popular skyline silhouette image of the big American city. Have a look at The Mythic City: Photographs of New York by Samuel H. Gottscho, 1925-1940 by Donald Albrecht.
***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.