Lucille Fornasieri Gold photographs
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Abstract
The 93 color and black and white and color photographs by amateur street photographer, Lucille Fornasieri Gold, were taken between 1968 and 2008. Gold's work is dominated by portraits of people who are posed and unposed, in the midst of various activities mostly in Brooklyn, but also in Manhattan and New Jersey. Item-level description and digital versions of images from the collection are available for searching via our online image database.
Biographical note
Lucille Fornasieri Gold was born in the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn in 1930. Her father, a professor of architectural studies, first exposed her to photography as a child. She attended Hunter College and later took classes at the Art Student League.
Gold started photographing with a Leica camera in 1968, while her children were in school. She would develop and print in the kitchen darkroom of her home in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn. When she moved, she lost her darkroom and while her negatives were processed, they remained unprinted for years. Starting in the 1990s, she and her second husband, Jack Gold, scanned the negatives, repaired lost detail due to deterioriation using Adobe Photoshop, and printed a curated set of photographs with their home printer. In 2002, Gold retired from the jewelry business and continued to work only on her photography. She moved on to photograph with a digital SLR and continued to review her older negatives for inclusion in curated series. Mrs. Gold died while visiting her son in New Jersey in April 2016.
She said of her photography: "There is always a movement, a gesture, an interesting or bizarre juxtaposition, a color or combination of colors that create a renewed impulse to see. I engage the social and moral questions, but I don't try to answer them. Ultimately there are no answers. When I'm photographing I feel the weight of the antecedents, the spirals of time, the evolution of thought and science."
Her work is also part of the Brooklyn Museum collection. She won first prize in a Con Edison contest called "My Brooklyn," was featured in exhibitions including a group show at Powerhouse Arena and a solo show at the Chelsea Market, and her work has been reprinted in various publications. Around 2008, she self-published three collections of her photography: "Old City," "Young City," and "Brooklyn Doggie."
System of Arrangement
The photographs in print and digital format were donated by the photographer in no particular order by subject, date, or location. Prints and digital files were given matching object identification numbers and are stored in a document box; the digital files are stored on a networked server.
Scope and Contents
The photographs in this collection are documentary in subject matter of a variety of neighborhoods in Brooklyn as well as Manhattan and New Jersey. The subject matter consists of street scenes, children, dogs, twins, and cityscapes in a style and perspective influenced by the photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson, Gary Winogrand, and Lisette Modell. Neighborhoods represented include Flatbush (New York, N.Y.), Prospect Park (New York, N.Y.), Coney Island (New York, N.Y.), and the Lower East Side (New York, N.Y.), and the predominant years are 1970 - 1985. The photographs are both color and black and white. All prints are 8" x 10"; the digital files are 300dpi tifs.
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Donors
Conditions Governing Access
Open to researchers without restriction.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright held by Lucille Fornasieri Gold until her death. All uses beyond fair use requires a licensing agreement as per Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Patrons should contact the photographer to receive licensing permissions.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date (if known); Lucille Fornasieri-Gold photographs, 2008.013, [object id]; Brooklyn Historical Society.
Photograph Records
Item-level description and digital versions of images from the collection are available for searching via our online image database.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by Lucille Fornasieri Gold in 2008.
Other Finding Aids
Item-level description and digital versions of images from the collection are available for searching via our online image database.
About this Guide
Processing Information
Processed to the item level.
