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The Mythic City: Photographs of New York by Samuel H. Gottscho, 1925-1940 | 
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| Author: Donald Albrecht
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
Category: Book
List Price: $40.00
Buy New: $15.83
You Save: $24.17 (60%)
New (17) Used (6) from $15.83
Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 523060
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.6
Dimensions (in): 11.1 x 8.6 x 0.9
ISBN: 1568985622
Dewey Decimal Number: 779.47471
EAN: 9781568985626
ASIN: 1568985622
Publication Date: September 22, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: New - Has remainder mark. Fast shipping from trusted wholesaler with many exclusive publisher contracts.
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Product Description
Daring, bold, dramatic, towering, impossibly glamorous: this is how we imagine New York in its golden age, and this is how Samuel H. Gottscho, the preeminent architectural photographer of his generation, captured it. Through his lens, New York of the 1930s became the quintessential modern metropolis, a round-the-clock city in which night was as charismatic as day. Rigorously editing out the Depression-weary city's more seamy aspects—its tenement slums, breadlines, and soup kitchens—Gottscho presented a dreamlike Gotham of skyscrapers and penthouse luxury that literally and figuratively glowed with glamour's sheen. His gimlet eye focused on the bold interplay of sun and shadow, dramatizing the chiseled forms of Manhattan's signature skyline and bridges. The Empire State and Chrysler buildings, Rockefeller Center, the Plaza, the George Washington Bridge—Gottscho brought them all to sparkling life. In this beautifully produced, landmark book, historian Donald Albrecht presents 175 of Gottscho's extraordinary images of the city, from the Battery to Harlem. An introductory essay tells the story of this legendary photographer, describing his working methods and philosophy, while placing his work in the broader context of photographic history. The exhibition The Mythic City will open at the Museum of the City of New York in the fall of 2005. Published in association with the Museum of the City of New York.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 Glorious photos of NYC in its prime July 3, 2008
Samuel Gottscho's wonderful photographs combine an architect's eye with the mood of an Edward Hopper painting. Cool but never cold, these photos are simply beautiful. The noir-flavored night shots are among the finest, with the chiaroscuro of a John Alton film. Gottscho had the luck to be living during one of New York's most photogenic periods, after most of the Art Deco classics had been built but before the postwar clutter of shoebox skyscrapers had set in.
Technically, this collection is very well produced, with sharp, lustrous photos on high-quality paper. Highly recommended for any fan of vintage urban photographs.
if you are looking for a present December 5, 2007
A friend of mine travelled to NYC not long ago and fell in love with this city. So my idea was to find a beautiful album about NY as a birthday present, but I didn't want to buy anything with average photographs of skyscrapers that repeat from one calendar to another.
Thanks to the snapshots provided to this book review I felt that it should have a personal touch and wouldn't be boring. It turned out to be true! now I'm thinking about ordering another one for myself.
Used as Guestbook at our wedding August 29, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
My husband and I used this beautiful book as a guestbook at our wedding.
We met and fell in love in New York City. Now that we live abroad, we miss the place tremendously. The photos in the book are gorgeous and capture our love for the City. Our guests were very creative in using the book's format to write their wishes for us. I highly recommend this book if you love NYC!
 Astoundingly Boring and Pointless December 22, 2006
0 out of 15 found this review helpful
This book was a total waste of money and time. Boring, repetitive and uninspired photos taken years ago by an architectural photographer for his clients and I have no idea why someone thought this worthy of publication.
I'm planning on returning it.
Manhattan light show April 7, 2006
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I thought it was very apt to use the word mythic in the title of this wonderful book. Surely Samuel Gottscho as much as anyone helped to create the popular visual concept of the dynamic American metropolis, a city of towers by day and a kaleidoscope of dazzling light by night, his work must have especially influenced creative folk from comic book artists to Hollywood art directors, the graphic city image is straight out of his photos.
Apart from the short intro essay the book is basically photos, divided into several sections and covering, for instance, bridges, Times Square, business, commercial and residential areas of Manhattan plus a few photos of the 1939 New York World's Fair. It is with the night photos where Gottscho really excelled. To achieve his luminous effect he took two exposures, one at dusk to define the building shapes and another some hours later to capture all the blazing window lights. I think these photos plus the ones of Times Square at night look quite stunning.
Another reason I like the book is the coverage of streamline design that keeps on appearing in many of the photos, not just the skyscrapers but interiors of retail units, Radio City, some of the apartment interiors and obviously the '39 World's Fair.
The book is well printed and designed and the paper makes the photos sparkle with their 200 dpi screen. The captions are basically the location, date and architect though frequently there is more detail provided where necessary. Overall I thought this was a fascinating photobook of what New York looked like in the recent past.
***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.
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