City as Metaphor
Lower Manhattan as seen from the Promenade in Brooklyn Heights, taken 1988 and 2021. Images by Richard Koenig; for more of this project please go here.
City as Metaphor
Manhattan as seen from Roosevelt Island, 1981 and 2021. We're standing under the 59th Street, or Queensboro Bridge (now named for Mayor Ed Koch), looking over the East River toward Manhattan. The tramway is also here of course, though one can also get to the island via subway. Images by Richard Koenig; for more of this project please go here.
City as Metaphor: A Re-Photography Project Spanning Forty Years
The East River from Roosevelt Island, with the Queensboro Bridge and Roosevelt Island Tram above.
Images by Richard Koenig, all rights reserved.
Midtown from Roosevelt Island
One image by Richard Koenig; taken October 29th 2021.
railwayhistorical reblogged
Construction of the Manhattan Bridge as seen from the Brooklyn side on March 23, 1909. Photo derives from an 8x10 glass negative.
source: George Grantham Bain Collection, via shorpy.com
This fabulous image of the Manhattan Bridge being built (above, from route22ny) caused me to look for, and pull, an image that I had made back in the early 1980s.
Taken from the top of the wonderful bridge (eastern tower), one can see lower Manhattan on the other side of the East River—the twin towers of the World Trade Center are prominent. I’m sure I would barely recognize the area now, what with all the pencil skyscrapers cluttering things up.
[Some friends and myself scaled this in the dark of night, simply for fun.] One image by Richard Koenig; taken in the summer of 1984.
The Fulton Fish Market
This market was established in 1822; it was located on the East River just uptown from Fulton Street, near the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge. In 2005, the market was relocated to Hunts Point in the Bronx, leaving this spot after 183 years.
Some of these images were published in Peninsula Magazine, related to the luxury hotel chain. Six images by Richard Koenig; taken in March of 1993.
From the Promenade
Here's a look at lower Manhattan on a cold day. Two ships are passing each other near where the East River empties into Upper New York Harbor—one a tug with barge, and the other an ocean-going vessel.
One image by Richard Koenig; taken January of 1988.
Roosevelt Island Tramway
Here are some photographs I took while using the tram to get to Roosevelt Island and back in the mid-1980s. The tramway opened in 1976.
In the first image we have quickly gained altitude and can look down upon 1st Avenue. In the second we’ve made it to a spot adjacent to the western tower of the very distinctive Queensboro (or 59th Street) Bridge; the companion capsule can be seen on its return trip to Manhattan.
In the final two images I’m exploring a bit on the island, taking in the East River and some of the buildings across the way—the United Nations Secretariat Building (completed 1952) and the Citicorp Building (1977) among them.
Four images by Richard Koenig; taken in the spring of 1984.