New York City's swanky Upper East Side is not where one would expect to find low-income tenement housing today. But that's just where, in 1936, on a blustery winter day, photographer Berenice Abbott photographed the Court of the First Model Tenements (post reform), for her Changing New York project. Front and center in the image is a five-story pole, which was embedded in concrete and, with the aide from pulleys, supported laundry lines for the tenement dwellers. Clotheslines marked many an urban landscape in New York City's history, often seen as a characteristic of its working class, lower-income denizens. In this beautiful shot, the diagonal laundry lines (of which Berenice said the clothes were frozen stiff) create geometric abstractions while speaking to the intersection of the buildings' myriad cultures. Meanwhile, children huddle for warmth in the distant background (at the base of the second pole).
+ Limited-edition, exclusive to 20x200
+ Museum quality: archival inks, 100% cotton rag paper unless noted
+ Handcrafted custom-framing is available
Our quoted dimensions are for the size of paper containing the images, not the printed image itself. We do not alter the aspect ratio, nor do we crop or resize the artists’ originals. All of our prints have a minimum border of .5 inches to allow for framing.
Medium:
Innova Fibaprint Warm Cotton Gloss
Edition Structure:
10"x8" | edition of 50
14"x11" | edition of 500
20"x16" | edition of 50
