André Kertész. Of Paris and New York

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I volunteer for our Local Historical Society: The Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough Historical Society (BMSHS). The Society is housed in the Eileen O’Connor Weber Historical Center, which is on the lower level of Briarcliff Manor Library building.

The other day I had a few minutes to spare, and I fancied a change of scene, so I went into the library and browsed around the shelves and came across this volume: André Kertész of Paris and New York. It was designed to accompany a 1985 exhibition of his work in The Art Institute of Chicago and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. There’s a review of the book here. I started to read it and after a while I decided that I wanted to get a copy for myself. I managed to find a very good, and quite inexpensive copy on Ebay.

Many photobooks have lots of pictures, but only limited text. I guess the logic is that the pictures should be able to stand by themselves and shouldn’t need the text to explain them. I’m not convinced that this is necessarily true even for captions and/or descriptions of individual photographs. But what I like is what this book has: substantial essays on various topics, in this case: “André Kertész: The Years in Paris” by Sandra S. Phillips; “Kertész and his Contemporaries in in Germany and France” by David Travis; “André Kertész: The Making of an American Photographer” by Weston J. Naef. With the Foreword, Acknowledgements and Preface these take up 95 pages! They are followed by 131 pages of plates, sections of the exhibitions catalogue, a bibliography and index.

There’s a lot of good stuff here and so far, I’ve only scratched the surface. I can’t wait to read the rest.

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Three houses on Ellis Place, Ossining

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“Ellis Place is a residential street roughly six blocks in length and containing 48 properties. Architectural styles of houses in Ellis Place include Italianate, Queen Anne, Second Empire, Carpenter Gothic, Vernacular, and Greek Revival.Ellis Place is architecturally significant as an example of a mid 19th century Romantic Suburban neighborhood. It is culturally significant as the home of numerous local residents who played a role in the commercial development of Sing Sing (now Ossining) Village from the mid 19th century to the early 20th century.

A residential street and neighborhood located in close proximity to downtown, it was originally a large estate known as The Ellis Place and was owned by Village residents John and Isabella Ellis. In 1851, the Ellises decided to sell the property to three local businessmen: Isaac Birdsall, Abram Hyatt, and Francis Larkin. The new owners then subdivided the property and sold the vacant parcels for home construction. The street was known as Southern Avenue for several years but was renamed Ellis Place in 1862 after the original landowners. Many of the
houses were originally single-family dwellings owned by members of Sing Sing Village’s business and merchant classes who chose to make their homes here due to its close proximity to downtown and pleasant, picturesque environment. Prominent local families such as McCord,
Barlow, Brandreth, and others owned homes here. The street was carefully landscaped with trees species that included maple, horse-chestnut, oak, fir, dogwood, magnolia, copper beech, and walnut. Many of the property owners also took it upon themselves to landscape their yards with
these plants as well. Some of the original plantings on Ellis Place survive to this day.” (Village of Ossining Significant Sites and Structures Guide, Page 123).”

The house above is one of three houses at 43, 45, and 47 Ellis Place. These three 1875 Carpenter Gothic style houses, known collectively as The Three Sisters, were built by local businessman John O’Brien for his three daughters: Birdie, Margaret, and Edith. This one is No. 47. I couldn’t get pictures of the other two because cars were parks outside, spoiling the view. Also, people were starting to look suspiciously at me for taking pictures of the houses, so I thought I’d better move on. In any case this one had, at least in my opinion, by far the most spectacular color scheme.

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This one is at 27 Ellis Place: It was built in the Second Empire style. Unlike surrounding properties, it sits off-axis on its parcel at an angle of approximately 20 degrees. Another spectacular color scheme.

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This house is also on Ellis Place, but it’s not as brightly painted as the other two. It looks a little neglected and doesn’t even get a mention in the “Village of Ossining Significant Sites and Structures Guide” (at least as far as I could tell. It’s a long document and I may have missed it). Possibly it has no historic value. I found it interesting though.

Taken with a Panasonic Lumix GX85 and Panasonic Lumix 20mm f1.7

Christmas Decorations

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I took these pictures in the middle of January while walking around in my neighborhood. At that time there were still plenty of Christmas decorations around. I remember thinking that it was a bit late for Christmas decorations. Nowadays, the Christmas season seems to start well before Thanksgiving (I thought that people usually start putting decorations out after Thanksgiving) and go well into January. Why not if it gives people pleasure?

The house above is one of the

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Taken with a Panasonic Lumix GX85 and Panasonic Lumix 20mm f1.7