Photographer Matt Weber has a series of Harlem photos from 1988 that capture the mood of Harlem during one of the toughest times to be in New York City. The "Crumbling New York" series shows broken or blocked up windows of old Harlem townhouses and buildings during a decade when population decline and property neglect was rampant uptown (click on image to enlarge). All of the photos are sort of beautiful in a sad way and are a great reminder of a time when living in the city was a much different experience. Check out more photos on the Matt Weber site:
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amazing photos. How quickly things change.
ReplyDeleteTotally a awesome work and website. Yes, amazing photos!
ReplyDeleteDitto
ReplyDeleteI remember my first trip to Harlem in 1989 it was damn scary and some of these photos bring me right back. All I can say is thank goodness for gentrification.
ReplyDeleteI remember, in the 1980s, falling asleep on the train and ending up in Harlem by accident. I asked a policeman for assistance and he said, "get out of here, now."
ReplyDeleteI echo Harlem BBC -- thank god for gentrification!
I am a Harlem child of the 70's and it was a memorable time. The only white people you saw walking around were the ones looking for drugs (does anyone remember that one of the Kennedy's died of a drug overdose in a vestibule on 116th St?)or Columbia students who forgot to transfer to the 1 train at 96th Street. They were visibly scared. As kids, we would have such a good laugh thinking about how frightened they were to have to go through Morningside Park to get to the campus- the part of Harlem we used to call the "White section."
ReplyDeleteI thought the Kennedy boy died in that fleabag hotel on 125 under the train tracks. . .
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