Port Morris - Iron, Steel and Rust

February 17, 2009 -

Port Morris is a Bronx industrial neighborhood covered in rust. Abandoned train tracks run overhead. A burnt-out gas station sits underneath the highway. And on the waterfront, a neglected Richard Serra sculpture is slowly rusting into the snow near an empty ferry terminal.

Between 1923 and 1969, the East 134th Street Ferry Terminal launched ferryboats out to North Brother Island and Rikers Island, according to "Over and Back, The History of Ferryboats in NY Harbor." Visitors for Typhoid Mary, who died in quarantine on North Brother Island in 1938, caught their boat here. During the same era, in 1932, the NY Times reported that "one of the worst marine-industrial accidents of the city's history" happened just offshore, when the old steamship Observation was "blown to pieces... blown to bits." According to "The Bronx: In Bits and Pieces" by Bill Twomey, the Observation "was only a few ship-lengths from shore when the boiler exploded, sinking the ship and killing 72 people on board, including the captain. Most of the dead were ironworkers who paid ten cents each for that fateful ride."

In a fitting and unintentional tribute to these forgotten ironworkers, a huge welded steel Richard Serra sculpture now rests just a few yards from their watery grave, facing the long abandoned ferry terminal. A welded nameplate inside labels it as "Bellamy" - a truly monumental piece of art worth millions of dollars. According to Man of Steel, a New Yorker article from 2002, "Bellamy" is "the spiral that Serra had named after the late Richard Bellamy, his close friend and early dealer." The sculpture was shown at the Venice Biennial before being exhibited by the Gagosian Gallery in 2001, where "one young couple got permission to be married in Bellamy." Fittingly, an article in Art Forum describes "Bellamy" as "an apt monument to the no longer living."

Despite its international acclaim, "Bellamy" is now hidden behind an old corrugated metal shed on the East River waterfront. It has been bleeding rust outdoors for at least three years, when it was used to stage a 2006 guerrilla art installation titled "Invisible Graffiti." It may have been outside even longer, according to a 2005 NY Sun article which claims Richard Serra is "storing" his sculptures in the Bronx. Like the rest of Port Morris, it could soon rust away entirely.

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For other photos from this expedition, visit Bluejake and Mercurialn. Follow-up stories about this sculpture can be seen at greg.org and at archeologie du futur. In September 2010, this photo essay was featured by The New York Times in an article titled "Richard Serra Sculpture Rusts in Bronx Yard" which included one of my photos and an interview.

The San Francisco Naval Shipyard

January 31, 2009 -

For many years, the San Francisco Naval Shipyard has been a source of inspiration for my photographs of New York's industrial edges. As mentioned in an interview with the NY Times, I "grew up in the Mission District of San Francisco, within view of the Navy Yard." The view from my back porch was of the iconic crane in the shipyard, pictured above. This was once the world's largest crane, though for many years, I considered it just another mysterious part of the city's skyline.

In 2006, I began photographing inside the San Francisco Naval Shipyard, documenting the changes it is undergoing. At the same time, I also began documenting the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which is undergoing a very similar transformation. Both are former Navy properties that played a large role in World War II. Both have subsequently been sold to their respective cities, and have become a home to both artists and industry. Both are still full of abandoned and unused historic spaces, and are currently undergoing huge redevelopments.

In 2008 San Francisco voters overwhelmingly passed Proposal G, allowing the San Francisco Naval Shipyard to be redeveloped by the Lennar Corporation. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the project will "remake the combined 720 acres with homes, retail shops and a green office park ringed by 300 acres of parkland - and possibly build a new stadium for the 49ers..." In the meantime, these photographs document some of the historic spaces that still remain in the shipyard.

Abandoned Brooklyn

In January, 2009, the UnionDocs Gallery curated an exhibit of my photographs titled Abandoned Brooklyn. The photos explored the industrial neighborhoods of Brooklyn, visiting an abandoned airport, deserted train stations and empty powerhouses, and documented a transitional moment in Brooklyn’s history, as it moves from its industrial past towards a future that seems to be dominated by luxury apartment buildings and chain stores.

The opening of Abandoned Brooklyn kicked off a new season of the UnionDocs Documentary Bodega screening series. As part of the opening night, there was a screening of my film Covered Tracks - a short documentary about an abandoned homeless city underneath Manhattan. Also screening was a short documentary about my photographs, directed by Joe Pacheco for the series Caught in the Act: Art in Brooklyn.

Abandoned Brooklyn was featured in a slideshow and interview on Gothamist, which described the work as "accessing areas that normal folks don't usually see." The Greenpoint Gazette agreed, saying the "works intrigue not only for their aesthetic beauty—the beauty of ruin, of decay, of the sad passing of time—but because like the photographs of Jacob Riis, they show us a world we would otherwise never see, a world left behind by the quick waves of gentrification." Brooklyn author Richard Grayson wrote in particular about "a gorgeous photo of an abandoned hangar from Floyd Bennett Field" that evoked memories his childhood, when the airfield was still in use.

Abandoned Station - East New York, 2007
36" x 48" Large Format D-Print

Anne Frank Couch - Sunset Park, 2008
36" x 48" Large Format D-Print

Afternoon Tea - Coney Island Creek, 2007
36" x 48" Large Format D-Print

Manhattanville: Phase 1

December 18, 2008 -

Manhattanville is a gritty industrial valley on the western edge of Harlem. Situated underneath multiple overpasses, including the famed Riverside Drive Viaduct, the neighborhood is a colorful collection of auto body shops, stone & marble fabricators, boiler repairmen and meat wholesalers. In recent years, its cobblestone streets have experienced a growing popularity, with a new Fairway Market and restaurants like Dinosaur BBQ drawing in crowds.

Columbia University plans to demolish 17 acres of this busy neighborhood. They will replace them with a huge new $7 billion extension campus. As part of this plan, Manhattanville was declared blighted in 2008 by the Empire State Development Corporation, opening the door for government use of eminent domain to seize the property of any businesses that did not wish to relocate. Like the radical transformation being forced upon the industrial businesses of the Iron Triangle, this plan was met with much protest, but to date, only three businesses continue to hold out against Columbia - a gas station and two storage companies.

Work has already begun on on Phase 1 of Columbia's plan, which will remove a city block between 129th and 130th Street west of Broadway. Several businesses in this block, including a service station and parking lot, have already closed their doors. Popular restaurants like Dinosaur BBQ and Floridita will be displaced. The prematurely quieted streets of Phase 1 are now watched over by dozens of security cameras.

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For more photo essays on neighborhoods endangered by eminent domain, please visit The Bloomberg Era, Part Two (2010), The Demolition of Manhattanville (2011), The Iron Triangle (2008), and The Atlantic Yards (2007).

ESDC Report

No Parking

No Dumping

Flat Fix

Stone & Marble

Abandoned Gas Station

Emergency Shutoff

Manhattanville

Manhattanville Houses

The Iron Triangle

December 11, 2008 -

Winter in the Iron Triangle. The rooster stays indoors. Loose dogs wander into empty lots, picking at carcasses. Melted snow floods the dirt-paved streets. Barrel fires are lit at every intersection to help ward off frostbite. Despite the cold, a constant stream of customers drives through this medieval landscape, keeping the potholes from freezing over.

Over a thousand people work in this bustling Queens industrial zone. Hundreds of businesses - mainly auto repair shops and junkyards - are crowded into a 13-block area, also known as Willets Point. And soon, it may all be bulldozed. The NYC EDC, which is behind the development of many of New York City's industrial areas, has a $3 billion development plan for the Iron Triangle. Despite years of protest by business owners and the valiant efforts of the area's single resident, the city decided this November to move forward with their plan, a massive new complex of luxury hotels, housing and retail space. Businesses that do not agree to relocate or sell out can now be seized using eminent domain, much like Columbia University's $7 billion plan for Manhattanville.

In the meantime the endless parade of cars continues 7 days a week, supporting a thriving and unique industrial neighborhood.

For another view of winter in the Iron Triangle, see Jake Dobkin's excellent photos at Bluejake.