Framing New York: Aperture's Lens on Urban Narratives

In the gallery’s main room, Berenice Abbott’s Nightview, New York (1932) anchors Aperture’s exhibition on the photographic shaping of New York City. This striking silver gelatin print depicts Manhattan’s electric grid, alive with light against dark winter skies. Measuring 23 by 19 inches and framed in simple black wood, it reflects Abbott’s aesthetic. The image encapsulates the exhibition’s thesis: photography constructs urban narratives.

Titled Framing the City: New York Through the Photographic Lens, the exhibition runs until January 28, 2024, at Aperture Gallery in Chelsea. It features over 80 works by 27 photographers, from early 20th-century modernists like Abbott and Alfred Stieglitz to contemporary artists such as Jamel Shabazz and Dina Litovsky. Curator Carmen Winant selected photographs that create an evolving portrait of New York City. “Cities are a collaboration,” Winant remarked in a recent interview, “and this exhibition highlights the many ways photographers have participated in the collective authorship of New York’s image.”

The show avoids chronological order, instead juxtaposing themes. Abbott’s stark portrayal of architectural geometry hangs next to Joel Meyerowitz’s vibrant print of a downtown street scene bathed in late-afternoon haze. This palette shift reflects a shift in ethos: Abbott strips New York down to its structural logic, while Meyerowitz revels in its emotional excesses. His New York City, Times Square (1978) captures the fluidity of pedestrian movement, punctuated by reflective surfaces and neon signs. This contrast invites visitors to consider how both perspectives shape the city's identity.

The second room focuses on portraiture, showcasing works by Diane Arbus, Carrie Mae Weems, and Nan Goldin. Goldin’s Suzan on Top of the World, NYC (1984) hangs alongside Weems’s From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried (1995–96), which overlays archival images with red tones and text that reclaim historical narratives for Black subjects. If the urban environment represents New York’s exterior, these images pivot inward, revealing the people who compose its soul.

Photography, as Winant frames it, does not occupy a neutral position in the city’s history. Its power lies in shaping perception and influencing policy. In 1935, the Federal Art Project commissioned photographers to document urban renewal projects. Lewis Hine’s work from this era, including his series on the construction of the Empire State Building, is represented here with rare contact prints on fibre paper. Hine’s images celebrate both laborers and architecture, reshaping public attitudes toward the human cost of technological progress.

Contemporary urban photographers continue this legacy with sharper critiques. Shawn Walker, a founding member of Kamoinge, contributes Central Harlem (2004), capturing not just physical architecture but the social interactions of the neighborhood. His deliberate use of shadow suggests both historical weight and resilience. Litovsky’s Subway Series (2017–2019) contrasts this with kinetic documentation of the city’s underground commuters, reveling in the messiness of public intimacy.

The exhibition embraces experimentation, such as Ming Smith’s painterly, double-exposed works that blur the line between photography and abstraction. Her Manhattan Skyline (1976) feels ghostly, with streaks of white light and an indistinct horizon, evoking both the city’s transience and permanence. Smith, long underappreciated, is now re-entering critical conversations, and her inclusion acknowledges her role in diversifying New York’s visual vocabulary.

One notable omission is the lack of works addressing New York's post-9/11 landscape. This absence raises questions about how trauma reshapes urban identity and the medium’s role in bearing witness.

Winant’s curatorial approach resists definitive answers, opting instead to pose questions. How does photography influence perceptions of cities? What does it omit? The exhibition’s accompanying catalogue, published by Aperture Foundation, extends these discussions with essays by scholars like Sarah Lewis and Marvin Heiferman. Lewis critiques the historical exclusion of certain communities from the photographic narrative of urban life in her essay, "Framing Justice."

By concluding with these unresolved tensions, Framing the City allows visitors to leave with both appreciation and responsibility. Photography, as Winant reminds us, is not merely a medium of record. It shapes collective memory. Nowhere is this more evident than in New York City, a place photographed so extensively that its image often threatens to eclipse its reality. In reframing these photographs, Aperture invites us to look again.