New York Now; Caption Master #32

Funding for New York now is provided by the New York State Health Insurance Program operating New York State Public employers and employees the employer plan a plan as great as the Empire State. The New York State Builders Association Research and Education Foundation were dedicated to training educational programs and research studies focused on the residential building industry. For more information visit Misbah dot com United University professions represents thirty three thousand academic and professional faculty on all state operated campuses of the State University of New York. You UVA is the union that makes you anywhere. More enjoying next generation technology thanks to horizons ongoing investment in its all fiber network horizon files for voice Internet and video services. Additional funding provided by New York now website comes from Philips Lytle

says New York now with better the capital in Albany and I am sitting next to Andy and he is an amazing photographer and really the brains behind a new book called historic New York architectural journeys in the Empire State along with Richard Reid who is his co-author. How are you. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you Zoraida dear. But tell us how the genesis of this book came to be. Well first of all not the brains behind this project landmark society Western New York has the brains and the financial. Backer behind this project but it's the culmination of essentially a 16 year soldiering throughout the state of New York photographing its architecture. When we say New York's architecture what should come to mind. I mean what comes to my mind are that you know Dutch homes and cobble stone

structures in western New York and maybe Art Deco in New York City nothing in particular comes to mind. Well one of the things that we're very lucky to have in this state is that variety of architecture going back to this book covers for centuries of architecture from the Dutch period on up into the most current building in our book is a frank eerie very modern piece of architecture hard college. And that's one of the things that you know New York state really has to its claim for fame is to have every architectural style that was ever developed is here in this thing. So here this is a well monastic buildings has a Roman style architecture we have everything from Greek Revival to Victorian You know you name it it's here. Frank Lloyd Wright left a lot of his legacies within this state as well as obviously some of the other periods that are so one when we say this is uniquely New York which is difficult to say by the way. Oh what what should come to mind.

Well that would be your Adirondack style is uniquely New York because that style was developed in this state by William to rant and camp sag and more is one of the great examples as well as Camp Santa noting which is another great example. But that style combines both the Alpine architecture of Europe with our long cabin style of architecture in this country. It's like a Swiss chalet cap exactly but in a very unique way and generally in a very grand nature that the average person who ever was familiar with a log cabin could not associate now. Absolutely not. These are called Great camps right like camp Sagger more. Tell us a little bit about the history of cancer more camp Sagen more was built back in the late 1800s and was built eventually was I say it should say purchased. Why one of the Vanderbilt. And this was their great camp I think you had roughly between 30 and 40 buildings that were operated year round on this particular location. And

some of things you read in the book is about some of the famous dinners they've had up there at Christmas time that housed you know 70 people showed up for various events and that was not an easy thing to do back at the turn of the century because the average trip duration to get from either New York City location or their Hudson Valley House was roughly thirty four hours of travel to get to that location. So when they got there they stayed for a while. Can you imagine serving 70 people around Christmas time and they didn't have a lot of thought what a location to do it with snow. That's three and four feet deep and you coming in my sleigh like William West Arat was truly an amazing visionary. Tell us about your photographs in the book of some of his structures. Well obviously the most familiar one that we did is Camp sack in March and now the facility obviously hosts a number of various events that take place during the year for musical events to literary events and it's an

incredible place and a serene place to go and visit in particular during the fall which is one of my favorite seasons to go up to the Adirondacks. But what you'll find is that the architecture it combines a lot of natural aspects meaning that some of the surfaces of the building will be made out of birch bark for instance as well as just a typical log cabin style of you know logs and its architectural detail. But everything all the ornamentation is used they're using for instance found forms from tree such as the bent limbs that might form a fence or a rail of some kind. So they're really rather unique. So it's all natural for all natural from that region. Exactly. You have the Empire State Building or the Chrysler Building in here and you have cobble stones structures from western New York and you have the camp Sagamore. How did you decide which structures were going to go into this book. It's rather a long process but and that's where the editing of a project like this

comes about because we know that in a book in this case here it's two hundred twenty six pages two and twenty four pages. We're never going to be able to cover the full depth and breadth of the architecture of New York State so we have to be very choosy on how we do that. So we want to be able to pick some of the grand architecture but also some of the more subtle you know less recognized forms of architecture or locations around the state because this book is actually a little different than some of our other books it's it is about architecture but it's primarily about an architectural journey through the state and by that term we're talking to people about visiting some of these locations because in this particular book as opposed to some of the other books every location in this book is open to the public and that's something that they can go and visit that. That's a key absolutely key a key issue and that was one of the guiding factors in coming up with the locations as well. Well why don't we start with the cover because the cover is the education building which is right across the street from where we happened to be set right. How did you get this photograph. I didn't

even recognize this photograph. Why most people don't. And the reason actually is it's one of a long story behind the making of this photograph or the use of this photograph making was rather easy it's just a matter of observation being at the right place at the right time. This is obviously photographed in the late part of the day where you get a nice golden light and it's actually earlier in the season it's early spring and we had to pick a subject for the cover of the book. And if we were to pick a tangible location such as the Capitol building itself or one of the other locations which were you know candidates Westbury house and Long Island very grand most stunning location. But then that would have meant we are picking one location and choosing it as the quintessential. Architectural location he needed to avoid So we had to avoid politically speaking for being very political here so to speak and they were dealing with an architectural style or indicator that people would say yes this is a beautiful piece of architecture. Where is it. But they have to open the book to find that out.

We passed by the education building as we were walking to this location and you said this is on the cover of the book and I said Oh yes as if I knew. But I didn't write. Most people don't and I think that's a very commonly asked question. But most of the photography that I take for these books and whatever I do spend a lot of time making sure that we have the right lighting. That really emphasizes the architecture because my feeling is that the buildings talk to me I don't necessarily talk back to them. Well they're always telling me when they want to be photographed. Why did why did the education building and its beautiful columns tell you twilight. Well because again when I photographed them earlier if you were ever to look at the files preceding you know. The editing process you'll see this building photographed under a number of different lighting effects midday mid afternoon early evening or late afternoon in Twilight and I kind of thing and like I said the light normally tells me by its shadow it

tends to highlight the architecture itself if you photograph like with mid day light it's very flat. It doesn't tend to accentuate any of the detail in a building and especially something as highly sculpted as these Corinthian columns. So I would think that you would have to scope out a building that you are going to photograph several times. Well I mean yeah all the time. Sometimes by serendipity we were showing up at a location at the right time the right time of the day right time to age the Brooklyn Bridge was not serendipity. However mentally I knew what I had to do in terms of. Photographing that location you can with obviously other resources you can research exactly you know what time of day sun will be setting in that area at what time of the year. And I knew that I had to be in the Brooklyn Bridge Park in a particular area to get that photograph. So we had that part staged out however with the permit process today. It's obviously a lot different after 9/11 for professional photographers to work. So

my permit actually was going to be for the next day a Sunday and in force of that they was going to rain so I knew I had to have this little window of headlight as we call it. It's just before night time but right after sunset you get the nice blue sky and you get the radiant light from all the buildings. So we photographed that actually on Saturday with her permit in hand and we were hoping that if we did get approached by any of the guards with that they would allow us to do the photograph but no one did so. Stunning photographs. We were talking about how you have to scope out your location prior to you know actually taking the photographs. What else goes into the planning process. Well obviously we have a large number of interiors in this book. And in order to do those interiors and to schedule that we have to be obviously in sync with any of the museum houses or in the case of the Capitol here you have to go through the vetting process of getting your permits to command and photograph. And they need

to know what you're doing. And that requires us to have essentially a release and as there's a whole lot of documentation that has to work up to this I need all the contact information who to call to make these arrangements so that I can schedule my interiors exteriors a little bit looser because generally most of the museum houses are open to the public. They allow for public photography generally. And we don't run into too many difficulties there but doing the interiors we do have to scope the mountain advance in looking at this book I would consider you an artist. Do you consider yourself an artist. To an artist photography is not an art but. But I think it's all in how you use it. Today obviously I try to bring as many emotional aspects to my work as I can and where I use that more heavily is by using the light and I spend a lot of time finding the right light in which to view my photographs

to create that bit of emotionalism because it might be late afternoon light but it might also be what we call dappled lighting. It's filtered lighting coming through trees where you see this really nice spray of light on a building and it just adds the character and dimensionality as I've said earlier to a particular location. Do you as a photographer use any technological bells and whistles to make your photographs even more sexy more punch. I don't artificially put anything into the photograph that would not be naturally there. When you show up or any other consumer buying the book would show up to any of these locations I think that would be a mistake to do that it's unfair if you will. But I do use technology to my advantage for instance. This is our first foray if you will into digital photography. Mostly all the other books were always produced by 4 by 5 transparencies or other forms of

film. Analog is what I would be called in today's market. But this book actually is about 30 percent film and about 70 percent digital. That does allow me to be able to after the fact balance things out a little bit more so that the colors balance to what you would normally see there and in some cases we've used the technology to create some really nice panoramic effects by using what we call multiple frame stitching and that is putting like five images together. In this case of the Stanley Theater in Utica New York that stage photograph is comprised of five individual photographs electronically stitched to give the viewer the exact same point of view if they're standing on that stage when they're looking out over that landscape was the editing. That's what they would say. That's very hard to get a lens to be that wide your eyes can be very deceiving because your eyes take in a lot more than a camera can always see and they're always moving and they're always. That's

fascinating. Maybe you can give us a little bit of an architectural history lesson. You mentioned to me that it's sort of like painting genres and painting one you genre like impressionism leads to another genre like the Hudson River score correct leads to post impressionism. How does that work in the world of architecture. Well obviously our book covers the four centuries of architecture everything from the late 60s hundreds right on up to the current 2003 with the Frank Geary building and each one of those periods in time in history the Dutch period of architecture starts the earliest period and progresses from there to the fairly federal style building which is in the early eighteen hundreds early 1820s progressing to the Greek Revival style of the Greek style of architecture in the 1850s 1860s progressing to then the Italian and Victorian styles of architecture. And we finish with what each of those are you know specific periods when those architectural styles were in

favor and they're generally adaptations of obviously Greek or Roman architecture such as this Roman Empire. When we think of New York City architecture certain buildings come to mind at the Dakota for example the Empire State Building the Flat Iron Building certainly. And the Chrysler building ahead of the scene. I'm sure they didn't pop out of nowhere How how did for example the Chrysler Building which would be considered Art Deco. Right. Where did that spring fall from what was the context surrounding the building of that particular structure. Well again if you look at the time period in which it was designed that was the height of the Art Deco period so a lot of buildings and commercial buildings in particular that were designed during the 30s would always have the flavor of architecture of the moment which would have been Art Deco New York City was a rather fascinating place in which to work is a very difficult place to work for a photographer just because of the amount of people

the places and not easily get to most of the time trying to find a place to park your car. You know with tripods and heavy equipment things of that nature was always difficult. The permeating process and in the case of the two buildings you're talking about the Chrysler Building and the Flatiron Building. Those are two not only. Landmark buildings but they are trademark building. What does that mean. Trademark means that the owners of those buildings are being very protective of how their buildings are being used both photographically if they're being used in advertising they want to make sure that their trademark is not infringed upon that you are not going to in any way shape or form denigrate their architecture or their reputation as a builder. It's their brand. Absolutely and they protect it very much so. And it took us roughly two years to work through the legal paperwork of getting not only our property release to be able to photograph it but to have our trademark agreement in tact to be able to publish the book. And they're the only two locations in the book that have special mention up

front that they are trademark buildings. They come with great stories that are absolutely like the corner of the corner right Broadway and 23rd Street and the story about 23 seconds but the viewer will have to buy the book to be able to read that story. You're not going to give it away. We have to have some incentive for people buying this book. All right I'll play again but you'll also notice that the way that the Flatiron Building was photographed is a probably a little bit different than the average scene you'll ever see. And I try not to photograph buildings when they're under construction which the Flat Iron Building has been under construction for rehabbing for a number of years. So the very first floor of the building is missing in my photograph. But one of the things that I want to do is to it is it is you don't see the streetscape because the streetscape is all scaffolding and it's sort of unfortunate and it's a rather on slightly thing to look at. But the unique thing about the Flat Iron Building is it's thin in nature and how it sits on that little precipice

of Broadway. It's like a wave there like a wedge and it allowed us to make a very narrow photograph of it to help and emphasize that without showing the street. So we there's always a workaround if you will when you're doing photographs like this on how to. Highlight the more interesting aspects like again with the Chrysler building for instance. The aspect that makes it unique is the sculptural detail of the top of the building and there's also a unique story there of which the reader will have to buy the book to find out about that you're tough that well you know we have to have incentives here. But the thing of it is is that there was always a lot of competition going on architecturally between architects having the tallest building in New York City and things of that nature and that kind. The Chrysler Building was the tallest building in New York City until the Empire State Building. And but there's a rather interesting story and this is the other thing Richard brings a lot of interesting stories to our

books that you really won't find in the average history or architectural book. They're rather anecdotal. And they're all detailed with the 23 skidoo story. And also like I say the story about the Chrysler Building on how at the last minute something would be revealed on this building that would make it the tallest building but that detail was never revealed to anybody in public because other buildings were being built simultaneously and they might have done the same thing. But I think that's what people really find and I know you've read the book quite a bit. Find very interesting about the book says that it's a really good blend of nice photography and really interesting point that story. It's a coffee table book that you would actually read. Absolutely yeah. All right I'm going to we're going to play the lightning round. I'm going to mention somebody's name and you tell me a little bit about that. OK why don't we start with an architectural firm McKim Mead white can mean white.

Probably the largest architectural firm in New York City at the time we're talking about the turn of the century turn of the century. They've left a legacy all around the state in the York as well as obviously other locations. Grand Central Station in Buffalo New York there's a lot of the can read in white locations up there. Bush years yeah. And if you actually read some of the stories about the farm of the Kim Meade and why they're very colorful as well. Robert Moses speaking of color Well he was very colorful person there was either you know revered or hated I guess by some people depending on whether or not you want an expressway run over your neighborhood or not. In some cases but obviously his most notable endeavor was. Jones beach with the water tower which is in one of our photographs in the very beginning of the book. It's almost like conic it is. Yes. And Jones Beach is rather quite unique obviously it's a series of structures built back in the late 30s and

quite interesting. Frederick Law Olmstead who everybody knows from Central Park but much more most parks around this state and as well as other states there's that Olmstead hand in one way shape or form Buffalo we had a beautiful. We still have obviously a beautiful Armstead park with the zoo and other areas around the zoo park area. It's quite beautiful. Did these men and they were mostly men. Yes. Did they study architecture or design. How did they get to where they are. Get to the pinnacle of their career. Well I think that it's like anything else people learn from other people they learn from other styles they visit. You know countries in Europe for instance are always an influence. And obviously our architecture in this country is very much influenced by the architecture and various styles in Europe and they bring that to this country and depending on the time period that they introduce it it can be either

really well accepted or they can be ahead of their time one of the two. And in most cases like with Frederick Law Olmstead he brought things and sensibilities to landscape architecture and design that actually think of New York City today without Central Park. And what that would mean and thank God that someone like almost there would have a little bit more control over what happened to say Central Park and say developers who would love to turn it into pavement and stone and steel. That's another topic that we should really dive into it we're sitting in this magnificent building that took years and years to make and to create 30 percent. Thirty two years. And how much money did it cost to build this enough money to almost bankroll our bankrupt New York State. There was a lot of money went into this particular building but let's put it this way. Looking back on it now having this building still standing

is just a statement in itself is such a monumental building. And you can also look around you can see the detail that would never be built in a in a building today. Just this find the stone carvers the amount of sandstone Medina's stone and all the other granite materials marbles and things of that nature are becoming much more difficult to find. And this is all hand hewing all hand done hand carved. Obviously there are probably some machine aspects somewheres but you've got to figure the time period. This was built as a built in the eighteen hundreds maybe thousands hundreds. We didn't have control technologies you know robots and things of that nature sandblasting techniques or other sculpting devices that would be used today to mimic this material this is done by stone carvers. Man 24 karat gold leaf leaf in the Senate chamber. Yes yards in yours. Would that ever be used today. Not really. I mean that would be prohibitive.

They do use it and obviously there are people that still you know apply that material in restorations but obviously I think that that's one of the things that we've had as a mission through the landmark society with our books is to try to educate people on the value of architecture not just in our state but we've obviously started in Rochester first migrated to Buffalo did the Eureka now but trying to educate people on the importance of architecture and what it means to us as as people and as a civilization. Well I have to say it was a remarkable journey and it's a remarkable book historic New York architectural journeys in the Empire State handy. Thank you so much for joining us for having me here to the OS. Funding for New York now is provided by the New York State Health Insurance Program offering New York State Public employers and employees the employer plan a plan as great as the Empire State.

The New York State Builders Association Research and Education Foundation were dedicated to training educational programs and research studies focused on the residential building industry. For more information visit the dot com United University professions represents thirty three thousand academic and professional faculty on the campuses of the State University of New York. You U.V. is the union that makes you anywhere more morning you are enjoying next generation technology. Thanks to the rise and ongoing investment in it's all fiber network horizon files for voice video service this additional funding provided by W.A. support for New York nows website comes from Philips Lighting.