Invisible New York: The Hidden Infrastructure of the City

by Stanley Greenberg, Thomas Garver (Introduction)

Remarkable photographs of a New York even long-time residents have never seen. Invisible New York is a photographic exploration of the hidden and often abandoned infrastructure of New York City. Inaccessible and unknown to most New Yorkers, the structures and machinery captured in Stanley Greenberg's luminous black-and-white prints deliver the essential services that a city's inhabitants usually take for granted. Many of these vast and imposing facilities have in recent decades been neglected or fallen into disuse. Others remain intact and in continuous use. Greenberg's dark and poetic images document how a city works, its technological evolution since the 19th century, and the toll that deterioration and years of deferred maintenance can take on the soul of a city. With a 4 x 5 monorail view camera and using only available light, Greenberg photographed sites in all five of New York's boroughs, many now permanently sealed in the interests of national security. Among the invisible places recorded are the massive valve chambers in the water tunnels 300 feet underground and other features of New York's extraordinary water system; the anchorages of the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Verrazano Narrows bridges; the dry dock at the Brooklyn Navy Yard; the derelict power station at Floyd Bennett Field; the elegant, turn-of-the-century steam turbine in Brooklyn's Pratt Institute; crumbling ruins on Ellis Island and Roosevelt Island; hidden sections of Grand Central Station and the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine; the West Side rail yards in Manhattan; the secret Nike missile silos in the Bronx; one of the last remaining manual switch rooms in the New York subway system; the faded grandeur of the City Hall Subway Station, its bronze chandeliers and leaded glass ceilings still largely undamaged; and the vast Brooklyn Army Terminal, once the world's largest warehouse. Greenberg's photographs of this hidden city uncover long-forgotten engineering feats, magnificent examples of skilled craftsmanship, and fascinating clues about New York's industrial past, as well as reveal the increasing aesthetic apathy of today's builders. His images chronicle both the beauty and the banal necessity of this rich legacy, threatened by public ignorance and bureaucratic indifference. Invisible New York offers a unique perspective on one of the world's great cities and alerts us to the hidden sites and essential facilities found in all cities which are slowly and secretly decaying or disappearing.

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction, Cities, New York

112 pages, Hardcover

First published November 5, 1998

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the notes as much as the photos and would have liked to know more about the history of the objects and sites photographed.

[Brook · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars, coming from someone who *loves* "urban spelunking." The photographer is a former city employee, probably friends with the civil servants that manage the locations he photographs. The photographs themselves are quite well-done, even if I don't care for the subject matter. This was bought as a gift for a friend, and I'm now going to have to give it with a caveat, "it just isn't that striking."

Having read accounts of the life of homeless/hobos/indigent people (depending on what they want to be called) who live in, for example, the miles of underground railway tunnels that run under NYC (not just the subway, but larger, spacious railways, with terminals, switches, yards, everything you'd find above-ground on a staggering scale), I expected something similar, but with infrastructure itself. There are indeed some great shots, but they are interspersed with shots of, for example, a large valve that will be part of Water Tunnel #3, the ongoing construction project to bring more water to the city. While this is an impressive architectural feat, something to give the Romans a run for their money, the photos come across as sterile (which, it is noted in the foreword, is sort of the point of the construction, to be sterile and functional).

In fact, I feel one of the points the book is trying to make is that older public works projects were things of beauty as well as function, where today's projects are function first, with form/beauty following that function (the foreword makes this point, too). And so tunnel #3 may not be as beautiful, say, as a water pumping station in Brooklyn completed in the early 1900s, but it has a "beauty" of function all its own. Think of the "beauty" of an early Porsche or Jaguar, more aesthetics and "feel" than function, versus the "beauty" of a modern hybrid car, with excellent fuel mileage, reliability, and safety. They are two different types of beauty. That is, I think, the main drive of the book.

All that said, as a work of "art," it is very dry. As an argument about the changing nature of public works, it does very well.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Greenberg' photographs and concise captions expose American's dying need for man-power infrastructure in the age of push-a-button technology, and how this once-dominant aspect of our working culture is dying along with it. The photographs at once demonstrate how these once solid and aesthetically pleasing structures are now crumbling in their non-use, and Americans' willingness to turn their heads away from this fading past to pursue more efficient and anonymous (and cheaper) means to support their lifestyles. The beautiful, crisp black & white plates in and of themselves slide into the category of their subjects in this age of digital photography.

[Jonathan Funk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This a series of photos of New York infrastructure taken from some rare and inaccessible locations. As an infrastructure engineer, I was utterly absorbed into this volume and would happily purchase a copy for myself as quintessential 'coffee table' material.

If you like pictures of pipes, tunnels, concrete & steel structural supports, etc. you should definitely check this out.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful large format black and white photographs. It's been almost nine years since this was published, and I'm sure many of the places in these photographs have since succumbed to demolition and redevelopment.

[Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting photo journey through some of the 'hidden' places of new york - the roof structure of cathedrals, the forgotten stations, and piers, and insides of bridges and power stations -- all with their unique and interesting structures.

[Matthew Flannery · Rating 5 out of 5]

A terrific photo essay of New York City's infrastructure. Such massive things, so critical to our modern life. Everyone should read this to understand what it means when the government says we need to spend money to help keep our city moving.

[Salim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Invisible New York

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok info but I wish the descriptions were with the pictures rather than in the back