West Street Row: I

Date

1936

Creator

<span>This print was made for Abbott's FAP [Federal Art Project] project, one of a number of photographs that Abbott took of the same subject on different days. Methodical inscriptions note the subject and the date of exposure. Standing with her back to the Hudson River, Abbott photographed this row of buildings with the afternoon sun warming their facades. A porch covers the sidewalk before the storefronts, which include an Italian restaurant, the Erie Cafeteria and the Susquehanna Hotel at the corner of Chambers Street. Despite the absence of people, the activity of these businesses is suggested by the deliveries waiting along the curb. A carter delivers boxes of rayon to L. Goldman & Son or the Firestein Company; the produce delivery truck from Anderson in Patterson, New Jersey, indicates the presence of a grocer, along with the empty wooden-slat bushel baskets that are stacked on the sidewalk. Above the row of shops are apartments and some rooms to let, indicated by the trellis of exterior fire escapes. Horse-drawn vehicles share the street with mechanized delivery trucks and automobiles. A traffic officer, who glances at the photographer, automatically waves cars along. In the background, the pinnacles of skyscrapers are visible, hinting at the obsolescence of this row. With foresight, Abbott placed a delivery truck at the center of this composition. Over the following decade, motor vehicles would drastically transform this neighborhood of Tribeca. Today, the street is the West Side Highway, with six busy lanes of speeding traffic. Steel and glass skyscrapers stand in place of the storefronts, and tall, international-style red-brick apartment towers face over the Hudson.<br/><br/>from Acton, A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame: Twentieth Century (Notre Dame, 2019)</span>