Series III: New York in the 1970s and 1980s

Series III consists of ca. 154 of Andreas Feininger's photographs of Manhattan taken from the early 1970s through the 1980s, many of which were exhibited in The New-York Historical Society's shows Manhattan Now: 14 Photographers Look at the Form of the City (1974), Manhattan Observed: Fourteen Photographers Look at New York, 1972-1981 (1981-1982), and The Deuce: Photographs of Times Square by Andreas Feininger (1998). Photographs are filed alphabetically by subject.

Photographs focus on a variety of subjects, the largest of which are Times Square; Graffiti; Signs, Murals, Posters, and Billboards; and Reflections. Many of the photographs of graffiti feature a life-sized black painted figure Feininger refers to as "Shadowman," painted in a variety of locations and variations on buildings and walls. Photographs of signs, murals, posters and billboards depict everything from hand-painted signs in foreign languages to explicit posters for strip clubs. Photographs on security and vandalism reflect Feininger's descriptive annotations on his photographs of a security gate and locked and vandalized bicycles. Feininger's photographs depicting construction, fire escapes, reflections, and water tanks focus on structure and pattern in the architecture of the city. The largest group of photographs depict the Times Square area, especially the signs for sex shops, strip clubs, and theaters of the 1970s and 1980s.

Most of the photographs in this series bear Feininger's stamp and a number reflecting the type of film and date; most are also signed and dated by the photographer.

At the end of this series are a group of oversize exhibition photographs printed for The New-York Historical Society and Raffi Custom Photo Lab, Inc. from Feininger's negatives for several of the aforementioned exhibits. Subjects include billboards, signs, Times Square, skyscrapers and reflections; notes are provided under subjects in the folder listing to lead researchers to pertinent exhibition photographs.