Alfred Schwartz, Angry Lady, 1962, Black and White Photograph, 11” x 14”,
A WING ONLINE PROJECT SPACE EXHIBITION
Equity Gallery is pleased to present the latest online-exclusive exhibition on our WING Project Space, My City, My People, a solo show featuring the photographs of Alfred Schwartz. This exhibition is made possible through the generous contributions of Schwartz’s daughter, NYAE Member Nancy Baker and showcases a small sampling of his prolific output spanning from 1950 through 1994.
My City, My People focuses predominantly on Schwartz’s street photography, which presents an intimate yet comprehensive survey of old New York City, unvarnished. Humble hand painted signs, eye-catching illustrated billboards and murals faded by persistent unmanaged smog, well-used rusting jalopies, and miscellaneous detritus on the street stand in harmony with the stalwart, stately facades of longstanding brownstones, storefronts, and skyscrapers. Strange and vibrant inhabitants are intimately profiled against their surroundings, their inner characters brought to full display. Rabbis, tourists, career women, and working class laborers all reside and tensely coexist within the same space. Both the people and the architecture featured in Schwartz’s photographs encapsulate a hodgepodge of rough edged imperfections and incongruities emblematic of the city of New York. All these elements are seemingly discordant, yet they manage to merge together to create a unique ecosystem. These images are testaments to the adaptability of New York City, a place in a constant state of transformation. Although Schwartz’s New York is of a bygone era, it scaffolds and informs the present day city.