New York City - Essay Example

New York [The of the will appear here] [The of the will appear here] [The of the ] Introduction New York City or the Big Apple is one of the most favorite cities of Americas because of the life that the country contains. Even after passing through various bad phases, the city continues to live on its ambition and enthusiasm. Millions of people come to America to see the Big Apple and to understand that reason behind its popularity. New York City is the center of the modern world in terms of all aspects of the modern world including art, fashion, technology, education etc. Particularly among the art circle, the city continues to have a special place. Artists continue to take the city as their subject and come up with varying dimensions of the city- including its people, its architecture, its live etc. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the philosophy of the city by taking in consideration three different mediums that represent similar or different aspects of the city. Each person has a different view of the city and the purpose of this paper is to view the city from their perspective. In order to bring about a suitable understanding of the city, three different Medias are taken. These include photographs of the subway by Walker Evans, The Empire State Building and the postcard titled, ‘Future of New York’. Walker Evans, in his representation of New York has taken pictures of random people in the subway without their consent. The Empire State is the landmark for NYC and represents the city in various fronts. The postcard shows a futuristic view of New York, taking in view the rapid pace of development within the city. Thus, each medium has brought forward a different aspect of the city that is apt from their perspective. New York City New York City is one of the most famous and populated cities of USA. This city is the center of all economic activities including education, technology, commerce, trade, art, fashion etc. New York can be termed as the capital of the modern world with its enterprising nature. New York is able to enjoy such popularity on account of it being a city with the port. It is because of this importance of the city that New York continues to be an important part of representing American throughout the world. When people talk about American, they conjure up an image of the lively bustling streets of New York with its diverse population compromising of people from all races, religious and casts. New York, in short, is an ambitious city filled with ambitious people who come to this city to explore their potential as well as the potential that the city has to offer to them. Walker Evan’s Photos Walker Evan’s black and white photographs on the subway represent the everyday life in New York. Walker Evans, for this series of photographs concealed his camera in the subway and clicked away at random people. These pictures were taken between the period of 1938 to 1941 without the subjects being aware of the fact that there pictures were being taken. These photographs represent people in transition; between their work to home, going to visit a friend, going to the theatre etc. Though, not ethically right, these pictures were considered masterpieces in their own rights when they are published in Evan’s book, Many are Called in 1966 (Brooks, 1997). These pictures carry with them the signature style of Walker Evans. Done in black and white, Walker Evans provided a detached perspective of life in the subway (Whitman, 1975). He shows pictures of couples, singles and random people but none show the emotion and variance that is typically associated with the city of New York. However, this may have been intentional on the part of Evans when he selected these particular photographs for the book. Evans wanted to show how people living in one of the busiest cities survive. There seems to be no interaction between the people and each is busy in his own special world, thinking about their worries and their special moments. They may look at each other but they do not acknowledge each other’s presence. There seems to be a bubble around these people that prevents them from interacting with each other (Twentieth Century Takes, 1991). Empire State Building Empire State Building is the most famous landmark of New York and also for the entire United States. This building that rises to a height of 102 stories is located at the intersection of the Fifth Avenue and the West 34th Street. The building gets its name from the nickname of New York and that is Empire State. In 1986, the building was named as the National Historic Landmark (Peterson, 2006). The Empire State Building was inaugurated in 1931 and at that time, it was the tallest building in the city. This building again became the tallest tower in the city after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 on the World Trade Center. The building houses an observatory on the 86th floor which allows viewers an unobstructed view of the entire city (Lusted, 2010). The Empire State building has been an attraction for millions of tourists including popular icons such as Winston Churchill, Queen Elizabeth II, and Albert Einstein etc. It continues to represent US and particularly New York throughout the world. This building is used as an icon in popular media to represent a variety of things including American identity and spirit. Popular representation of the tower occurs in epic movies such as Sleepless in Seattle and King Kong. While many are inspired by this icon of New York, very few understand what this cultural icon represents. The Empire State building represents the ambition and hard work of millions of Americans who wanted to build a tower that could stand in equal comparison with the Eiffel Tower in Paris. This building was completed before schedule. Thus the building represents true American spirit of achieving the impossible. Even in the proceeding times of Depression, this icon stood firm and gave courage to millions of American to believe in their dreams and remain optimistic (Goodwin, 2008). Postcard: Future of New York, The City of Skyscrapers The Postcard, ‘Future of New York: The City of Skyscrapers’ was created in 1916 to predict what future held for the rapidly developing city. This postcard was built before the construction of the Empire State Building and thus was a good attempt by the creator to depict the future of the vertical city. This postcard was developed by Walker Evans and belonged to a series of postcards that were reproduced and published by Buenos Aires. The drawing on the front of the postcard was originally a drawing by Harry M. Pettit that was published in 1908 by the King’s Views of New York. The title of the original drawing was ‘The Cosmopolis of the Future’ (Monclus, 2006). In this postcard, Evans depicts how New York will look in the future with buildings rising towards the sky and reaching the Heaven. In his New York, Evans creates a crisscrossing mesh of railways, roads and other modern contraptions that could very well be a part of New York. This view of New York was built by taking in view that skyscrapers present in New York during that time period including The Tower Building, the Singer Building and The Woolworth Tower. One can make this assumption based on the text provided at the back of the postcard (Newcomb, 2012). Evans envisions the future of New York based on the rapid technological advancements in the city at that time. What may not have been possible in a few years was standing in front of the eye and this made the city so special. Evans took on this concept and developed a New York that people may have wondered about but they would not have thought that it was possible in for NYC. New York Represented in the Three Medias The three Medias discussed above represent a different aspect of New York. Since New York is a city filled with diverse people and diverse opportunities, it is not surprising that the interpretation of New York in different media is completely different from each other. The photographs by Walker Evans explore a rather intimate side of New York and that is the people living in the city. While Walker Evans took these photos from the subway, the viewer can only see the people in the photographs. These people may not have the same liveliness that we associate with NYC but they have the detached look of people whose mind is working on new opportunities and possibilities and thus they have no time for the person sitting next to them. Furthermore, these people may belong to any city in America and this is what makes the photographs so vivid and appealing. Walker Evans, in his photos, shows that it is the people who make the city rather than the buildings and the landmarks and these people are similar in all parts of the country. The Empire State Building on the other hand reflects on the ambition of the city and the ambition of the people living in the city. This monument was constructed as an answer to the towering Eiffel Tower in Paris. The people of NYC wanted the world to know that they can compete with anyone in the world. While the depression era quickly followed the construction of the tower, this monument allowed the people of NYC to believe in their vision and their city since it could achieve the impossible; and that also under time and before schedule. The third media, which is the postcard, reflects on the future of the city as one where technology has spread its web. The artist, Walker Evans created a picture of NYC that people could have envisioned to a great extent during that time period. However, Evans took the imagination a bit further and came up with a NYC that still remains to be seen. He took NYC as the city of skyscrapers and builds his vision on that along, while focusing on the fact that NYC depended on communication and technology to achieve this vision. As a result, the NYC of Evans is something we can all expect in the near future (Taylor, 2011). A Comparison In order to compare the media, we have to understand that these three mediums belong to totally different representations of New York and therefore they depict a different aspect of New York. Since it is not possible to compare the elements of the Medias as they use different mediums, the comparison would be based on the theme, ideology and philosophy behind the three mediums. The Liveliness of New York In the post card by Walker Evans, we do not see any human element. Even though, the future of New York City is represented, it does not show people walking on the roads or looking of the window. Evans presents a very cold view of the futuristic New York. In the similar way, The Empire State Building looms as a cold building with no aspect of life. Steel structures are used that though make the building loom large but they do not make the building appear to be meant for human living. However, in the series of pictures by Walker Evans, one finds the missing human element. This is because Evans particularly focuses on the human characters and emotion in the subway train. He dedicates his photos specifically to the people and one is not aware that these people are travelling in the subway without knowing the background of the pictures. The Diversity of New York Even though, we find the human element in the photos by Evans, we do not see these humans are the vibrant characters that one associates with city of New York. New York is the city of people belonging to all kinds of races, religions and backgrounds. But none of the mediums selected for this paper have the diversity that is represented in New York. While viewing the Walker Evans’s pictures, we see people belonging to the same race and even the same ages. There is no eccentricity in any of these people. In a similar way, the postcard does not show New York City with its vitality. Though, the busy view does in a manner communicate the essence of New York but still there is no element of diversity. The entire postcard shows a harmonies view of the city, occupied by just skyscrapers. The small and inconsequential buildings, that are as much part of New York as the looming skyscrapers, are absent from the postcard. While viewing the Empire State Building, one also does not find the essence of New York as a city filled with diverse people. The building is made mostly from steel that lacks the true picture of New York. Conclusion In conclusion, we can say that NYC is a diverse city that serves many functions and many people. It is for this reason that in each of the mediums studied, we find a different aspect of the city that ranges from the human angle to the technological perspective. Each artist has taken forth his own philosophy of New York and expanded on it to provide viewers an apt representation of the one of the busiest cities in the world. References Brooks, M. W. 1997, Subway City: Riding the Trains, Reading New York, USA: Rutgers University Press Goodwin, M. A. 2007, Rave to the Sky, Boys’ Quest, Vol. 13, No. 4, p. 28 Lusted, M. 2010, Empire State Building, Cobblestone, Vol. 31, No. 6, p.38 Monclus, F. J. 2006. Culture, Urbanism And Planning, New York: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. Newcomb, J. 2012. How Did Poetry Survive?: The Making of Modern American Verse, Illinois: University of Illinois Press Peterson, S. 2006. Empire State Building, USA: The Creative Company Taylor, C. 2011. NYC Image: Future New York, The City of Skyscrapers, 1910s, Retrieved from http://nycvintage.blogspot.com/2011/05/nyc-image-future-new-york-city-of.html Twentieth-Century Takes, 1991, Americana, Vol. 19, No. 5, p. 25 Whitman, A. 1975, Walker Evans Dies; Artist With Camera, Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1103.html Read More