The Washington Market School – WMS Benefit 2012
Auction Ends: Apr 30, 2012 11:59 PM EDT

Art

Joel Sternfeld's Autographed Book Walking the High Line

Item Number
87
Estimated Value
500 USD
Sold
705 USD to briansilver
Number of Bids
15  -  Bid History

Item Description

One copy of "Walking the High Line", signed by photographer Joel Sternfeld and co-founders of Friends of the High Line, Robert Hammond and Joshua David. This is a truly unique and rarely available edition signed by three pioneers of the High Line. With a large-format camera and an eye for the subtle light of cloudy days, photographer Sternfeld (Stranger Passing) documents the High Line, an elevated railway running along the western edge of Manhattan for just over a mile. The tracks, which have been derelict for more than 20 years, once carried freight to the warehouses and shipping yards along the Hudson. Though the urban landscape is evident billboards, apartment buildings, and warehouses surround the tracks in each shot Sternfeld's focus is on the wildness that now overtakes the High Line, his angles emphasizing the road before him as it sprouts bristling weeds and scrawny trees, or softens into patches of clover, buttercups, and grape hyacinths. Taken from May 2000 to July 2001, the photographs capture the seasonal changes of this surprisingly undisturbed space. Two essays follow the 24 color plates; Harvard history and landscape professor John Stilgoe obliquely considers the idea of discovery, while New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik offers a brief history of the elevated railway, with comments by Sternfeld. This slender book is an important addition to comprehensive New York City libraries and is recommended for large photography and urban planning collections. Carolyn Kuebler, "Library Journal" To view a selection of images included in the book, please visit http://www.thehighline.org/galleries/images/joel-sternfeld

Item Special Note

N/A

Donated By:

Joel Sternfeld