#NYC

by Jeff Mermelstein

#nyc est l'enquête multiforme, comique et déchirante de Jeff Mermelstein sur la vie contemporaine apprise par le biais de messages texte supervisés. Écrit dans le nouveau langage de l'acronyme et de l'initialisme, de la troncature et du jeu de mots chiffré, interrompu par la longueur occasionnelle, les gens semblent avoir peu d'inhibitions lorsqu'ils ne sont confrontés qu'à leur propre reflet dans un écran de téléphone, de sorte qu'ils déversent leur désir et leur luxure sincères. et la haine et le vitriol dans des courants libres de conscience textuelle. Chaucerien dans son ampleur et son humour, ce projet révèle la vie intérieure complexe des habitants de la ville et l'intrigante richesse d'émotions qui existe dans les moments les plus anodins de la vie dans le train, sur un banc de parc ou dans la rue. Ici se déroule une brève histoire de New York, racontée directement par un habitant à un autre. Jeff Mermelstein, est le fils de survivants de l’Holocauste. Né en 1957 au Nouveau-Brunswick, New Jersey. Il a déménagé à New York en 1979 pour un stage d'un an en photographie à l'International Center of Photography et fait partie de la faculté de l'ICP depuis 1987. Les photographies de Mermelstein font partie des collections permanentes de nombreux musées et institutions, dont le Whitney Museum of American Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, the International Center of Photography, le Museum of Fine Arts Houston, le Museum of the City of New York, la New York Public Library, le George Eastman Museum et autres. Les monographies publiées précédemment incluent Sidewalk (1999), No Title Here (2003), Twirl / Run (2009), Arena (2019) et Hardened (2019).

Genres: Photography

160 pages, Paperback

Published July 1, 2020

Reviews

[Nick LeBlanc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bravo to @mack_books. This book is fantastic. It’s a collection of photographs of people’s conversations on their phones snapped by @jeffmermelstein over a period of a few years in New York City. You are immediately absorbed by it; the color of the book, the moral questions of taking photos without permission, the snippets of conversations, some of which are funny, some disgusting, some heartbreaking. There’s talk between people about sexual kinks, parents shooting love notes to one another, confessions, apologies, it’s really an amazing idea. It feels like a perfect representation of the intimate inner lives of this time in history. I would share some of the pictures from inside the book with you, but I feel like that’s sort of betraying Mermelstein’s work. Just follow him on Instagram if you’re curious, you can find some of it in there. I don’t know if I’ve ever read a book that’s more “of it’s time.” The photo quality obviously isn’t amazing, but it works to deepen the voyeuristic relationship between us and the subject. Also, the choice of blue paper for the cover and pages is just so perfect for so many reasons. Buy this book, give it to your grandkids when you’re an old person. It will help them understand.
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tl;dr—fascinating read, perfect idea for a book, a real must-own for our generation. Go buy it.

[Jon Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a work of genius on many different levels. As photography, I was shocked at the level of physical courage and technique it would have taken to get all of these shots. And to get the ones in here, you know he had to take way more. The concept here is simple, but there are a lot of new revelations when presented this way, in a book.

Even though I had followed the series as Mermelstein posted them to his Instagram, there was a lot I didn’t appreciate about the photos until seeing them in this sequence and form factor. There is so much contained in the small details around the glowing screens: How are they holding their phone? Do their hands look old or young? Long fingernails? Jewelry? Shattered screen? Android or iOS? iMessage or WhatsApp? Do they have large type enabled? I wonder if people in 20-30 years will even understand all of these subtle details and know how to interpret what they mean. And of course, the screens contain the most honest, human content you will ever find in a modern photograph.

The only choice I disagree with was casting all of the photos into black and white with the blue tint. I think a lot was lost from sacrificing the color. It also masks the fact that he took all these photos from his iPhone too.

But what is also great about this book is that it feels really new and it makes you think. It makes you think about what photography can be in the current era of smartphone cameras and social media. If photography is about capturing the perfect moment, what could be more pure than that fraction of a second that someone pauses and holds their breath before sending some intimate text message to a close one?

It feels like a lot, if not most, people doing street photography these days are just chasing nostalgia and copying the photography of 30-40 years ago (often even using the same cameras). Jeff Mermelstein is out there with his iPhone questioning everything and pushing things forward.