Vous voulez voir cette page en fran�ais ? Cliquez ici.

Quantity:

More Buying Choices

Have one to sell? Sell yours here

Share your own customer images

Search inside this book

The Mythic City: Photographs Of New York By Samuel H. Gottscho, 1925-1940 [Hardcover]

Donald Albrecht (Author)

5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

List Price:	CDN$ 52.00
Price:	CDN$ 36.95 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details
You Save:	CDN$ 15.05 (29%)
	o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

Usually ships within 1 to 4 months.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca. Gift-wrap available.

Formats	Amazon Price		New from	Used from
Hardcover	CDN $36.95		--	--
Paperback	CDN $22.02		--	--

Product Details

Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press; 1 edition (Sep 23 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1568985622
ISBN-13: 978-1568985626
Product Dimensions: 28 x 22.6 x 2.3 cm
Shipping Weight: 1.2 Kg

Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #481,167 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Review

Before there were Trump towers dotting every other corner, New York was full of architectural marvels. This is apparent in "Mythic City: Photographs of New York by Samuel H. Gottscho, 1925--1940," on view at the Museum of the City of New York from Nov. 1, 2005, through Feb. 20, 2006. Gottscho offers a glimpse of lost treasures, from the Art Deco Rex Cole showroom in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, to the swanky interiors of William Paley's Beekman Place town house. Documenting the city' s rapidly changing landscape, Gottscho created dreamlike images with an artist's eye. "It is ironic, because he was photographing during the height of the Depression," says Donald Albrecht, the curator of the exhibit and the author of the accompanying book from Princeton Architectural Press. But his vision, Albrecht says, "is optimistic and heroic." -T Magazine

Book Description

Daring and glamorous: this is New York in its golden age of the 1930s, and this is how the pre-eminent architectural photographer of that generation captured it.

Samuel H. Gottscho's photographs dramatized Manhattan's signature skyline and bridges. The detailed text describes his methods and philosophy, placing his work in the broader context of photographic history.

See all Product Description

Inside This Book (Learn More)

Explore More
Concordance

Tag this product

(What's this?)

Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items.

Customer Reviews

1 Review

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most helpful customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Manhattan light show, April 7 2006

Robin Benson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Mythic City: Photographs Of New York By Samuel H. Gottscho, 1925-1940 (Hardcover)

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 conception of the dynamic American city, 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. The 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.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See the customer review...

Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com ^(beta)

Amazon.com: 4.4 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Manhattan light show, April 7 2006

By Robin Benson - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: The Mythic City: Photographs Of New York By Samuel H. Gottscho, 1925-1940 (Hardcover)

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Glorious photos of NYC in its prime, July 3 2008

By Carl Tait - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: The Mythic City: Photographs Of New York By Samuel H. Gottscho, 1925-1940 (Hardcover)

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Used as Guestbook at our wedding, Aug 29 2007

By C. Perez "nyc ex-pat" - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: The Mythic City: Photographs Of New York By Samuel H. Gottscho, 1925-1940 (Hardcover)

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!

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 7 reviews 4.4 out of 5 stars