What’s your image of Times Square? The oversized billboards that advertise everything from Broadway shows to underwear? The packed crowds and the descending crystal ball greeting the New Year? The x-rated peep shows that used to dominate the area and now are few and far between? The Disney theaters that have turned a seedy area into one that is family-friendly?
Whatever your image of Times Square—past or present—you are bound to be intrigued by the current exhibit at the Yancey Richardson Gallery, Glitz & Grime: Photographs of Times Square. The images capture the diverse nature of the intersection that has been called the “crossroads of the world.” The two dozen photographs on display span the years from 1945 (Alfred Eisenstadt’s famous image of a sailor kissing a nurse on V-J Day) to 2009 (Dan Weiner’s likeness of youthful revelers on New Year’s Eve). Some photos capture the sordidness that once characterized Times Square, while others reflect the more recent sanitized version. (The photo above, Target, 42nd Street, Times Square, NY, 2002, is by Andrew Moore).
Some of the photographs are haunting, notably David Hilliard’s White Noise, showing a man gazing out of a window. In another, we see a pensive James Dean, walking down a windswept street, in a 1955 photograph by Dennis Stock. We are reminded of the glamour of Times Square in a 1997 photograph by Lillian Bassman, Annelise Seubert, showing the model in an elegant ball gown. And, of course, there are numerous photos showing the bright lights of an area populated by Broadway theaters.
Times Square is like a living organism, growing, changing. Now we have an area blocked to traffic where people can sit in lawn chairs relax, read, and take in the sights. In Times Square, the action continues. And who knows what images will be captured in the future?
Glitz & Grime: Photographs of Times Square
July 9 through August 28, 2009
Yancey Richardson Gallery
535 West 22nd Street
646-230-9610
www.yanceyrichardson.com
Summer Hours, Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
