Series I: New York in the Forties

Series I consists of a series of 162 gelatin silver photographs, ranging in size from 8 x 10 to 13 1/4 x 22 inches, that were published in Feininger's 1978 volume New York in the Forties. Photographs are arranged alphabetically by subjects which were assigned during processing. Photographs depict New York City neighborhoods, buildings, street life, shops, bridges and elevated railroads between ca. 1939 and 1954. His classic telephoto views of the New York skyline, the crowds of 42nd Street, and the towers of the Brooklyn Bridge rising above its pedestrian traffic make up the bulk of this series. In the introduction to New York in the Forties, John von Hartz notes that the "the 40s linger in the collective consciousness of New Yorkers as 'the good old days,'" and while Feininger's photographs show the grandeur of the towering cityscape, he also points his camera at a more ominous side of New York in his portraits of men at tattoo parlors on the Bowery, the poor shoeshine man on Fifth Avenue, desperate men lined up outside an employment agency at the tail end of the depression, and the dark skyline of the World War II dimouts.

Feininger often focused his lens on the shops, vendors and other market places of the city. His series of photographs on the Jewish Lower East Side shows the preponderance of the Yiddish language on signs and the variety of religious Judaica and kosher food shops catering to the needs of the local community. Views of Chinatown shops portray men lined up to read the latest war-related headlines on the window of a Chinese language newspaper, as well as Chinese groceries and vendors. Other views show Italians on Mulberry Street and grocery stores in Harlem.

Views of New Yorkers engaging in leisure time activities are included in Feininger's photographs of Coney Island and Central Park. Other subjects include the elevated railroads, ship traffic, passengers boarding ocean liners on the Hudson River, and the lights and theaters of Times Square. Snow covered land- and cityscapes can also be found under the subjects South Street and Lower Manhattan Waterfront, Central Park, and Fifth Avenue.

One folder of oversize hinged views from this series is housed at the end of the collection in Flat Files, Folder 87. Notes have been provided throughout the folder listing for this series to lead researchers to pertinent items.

Most of the photographs in this series are stamped, dated, and signed by the photographer. Photographs from this series were exhibited in The New-York Historical Society exhibit New York in the Forties: Photographs by Andreas Feininger in 1978.