Legacy: The Preservation of Wilderness in New York City Parks Photographs
Since 2006, at the request of Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, master photographer Joel Meyerowitz has traversed the nearly 29,000 acres of New York City parkland, documenting the woodlands, streams, waterfronts, marshes, and beaches of our five boroughs. Not since the execution of Franklin D. Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration program in the 1930s has a comprehensive, photographic documentation of the city's parkland been produced.
This fall, in conjunction with the publication of Mr. Meyerowitz's book Legacy: The Preservation of Wilderness in New York City Parks, New York City residents and visitors will get the chance to peek at these stunning photos, learn about the odyssey of capturing New York City's parks on camera, and discover the natural gems flourishing in the urban refuges on their doorsteps.
Events
Artist's Talk and Book Signing with Joel Meyerowitz
Tuesday, September 29, 2009 at 6:30 p.m.
Aperture Gallery, Manhattan
Legacy: The Preservation of Wilderness in New York City Parks Exhibition
Friday, October 9 through Sunday, March 7, 2009
Museum of the City of New York, Manhattan
Talk and Book Signing: Joel Meyerowitz and Phillip Lopate in Conversation
Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 7:00 p.m.
Barnes and Noble at 86th Street, Manhattan
Book Signing
Friday, December 4, 2009 at 6:00 p.m.
International Center of Photography, Manhattan
About the Book
Legacy: The Preservation of Wilderness in New York City Parks
By Joel Meyerowitz
Foreword by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
Essay by Phillip Lopate
Publication date: October 9, 2009
This historic publication defines an important moment, as master photographer Joel Meyerowitz is the first photographer to document New York City's parks since the 1930s, when they were photographed as part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's WPA program.
In this stunningly beautiful collection of images, Meyerowitz invites the viewer to discover the hidden pockets of wilderness that still exist within the urban environs of New York City. This compelling body of work is the result of a unique commission Meyerowitz received from the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation to document, interpret, and celebrate one of New York City's greatest legacies: the nearly 9,000 acres of parks in the five boroughs that have been left or returned to their most natural state. The images in this book are drawn from the thousands that make up the HP Archive of the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation.
Meyerowitz, who was born and raised in the Bronx in the 1940s and '50s, is a self–described urban Huckleberry Finn who refers to the Bronx River as his Mississippi. In creating this work, Meyerowitz has drawn upon his childhood memories of a New York with “green space–open and wild, alive with rabbits, migratory birds, snakes, frogs, and the occasional skunk... [That] gave me my first sense of the natural world, its temperament and its seasons, its unpredictability, and its mystery.”
To accompany these magnificent images, Mayor Michael Bloomberg contributes a foreword and renowned author Phillip Lopate expands on his notion of the urban walk–poem–deurbanized. The book also contains a wealth of information about individual park features, from maps to historical chronologies and notes on the key species in each. This extraordinary 21st century archive of New York City parks will delight and inspire lovers of contemporary landscape photography and urban naturalists everywhere for years to come. An exhibition of this series will open October 9, 2009 at the Museum of the City of New York.
About Joel Meyerowitz
Joel Meyerowitz (born in New York, 1938) is an award–winning photographer whose work has appeared in over 350 international exhibitions. He is a two–time Guggenheim fellow, a recipient of both NEA and NEH awards, as well as a recipient of the Deutscher Fotobuchpreis. He has published over fifteen books, including Cape Light (1978) and Aftermath: The World Trade Center Archive (2006). He lives in New York and is represented by Edwynn Houk Gallery.