First edition of Dr. Blankman’s New York by Todd Papageorge (2017)
First impression
Large format hardback in near fine condition
Some very minor sunning to spine and slight fading to text on spine
No internal markings, pages clean, binding firm
About
od Papageorge: Dr. Blankmans New Yorkdocuments a brief but critical moment in the photographer’s early career, the two years Papageorge shot in color in New York in the late 1960s. Black-and-white photography was still the “serious” medium, and color reserved for commercial applications; Papageorge–25 years old and newly arrived in New York City–was encouraged by his fellow photographers to seek paying magazine work by developing a body of work in color. In some ways it was a failed experiment: Papageorge mostly approached color in the same way as he approached black and white, except that he also began to intuitively produce still-life pictures with little commercial appeal, spotlighting canned hams in shop windows and political posters. But color offered Papageorge the opportunity to work in a new medium at a time of great social, political and cultural change. “Id like to think that, inDr. Blankmans New York, youll find a persuasive account of what it meant for me to be free with a Leica in the streets of my newly adopted home of Manhattan,” writes Papageorge, “a record drawn with Kodachrome film and its rich, saturated colors.”
