Arts & Entertainment

Photographing The Lower East Side

U-M exhibit seeks to rethink the relationship between an iconic location
for Jewish Americans and the history of photography.

Kimberly Kunoff
Special to the Jewish News

Ann Arbor

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pening Nov. 12 in Ann Arbor
at the University of Michigan's
Humanities Institute Gallery,
the exhibition "The View From Below:
Photography, Innovation and the Lower
East Side" will showcase 40 photographs
made on and in response to an area of
New York City captured by a wide range of
photographers — from late-19th-century
documentarian Jacob Riis to canonical
photo practitioners Alfred Steiglitz, Paul
Strand and Walker Evans; from members
of the storied New York Photo League and
postwar photographer Bruce Davidson to
contemporary image-makers Zoe Leonard
and Shimon Attie.
The exhibit is curated by Sara Blair, a
professor in U-M's Department of English
Language and Literature, with support
from the Frankel Institute for Advanced
Judaic Studies and the Institute for
Humanities, both in Ann Arbor.
"The iconicity of the Lower East Side
and its spaces — dynamic streets, crowd-
ed tenements, vivid storefronts and sign-
scapes — has enabled experimentation
with a wide range of aesthetics:' explains
Blair. "Across time, photographers have
exploited its distinctive social histories
and symbolic resonances to raise ques-
tions about memory and modernity, stasis
and mobility, belonging and exclusion."
The exhibit also aims to redirect think-
ing about the rich historical relationship
between Jews and photography by empha-
sizing the Lower East Side as a resource
for pioneering photographic work.
"These powerful images show us how
generative the Lower East Side has been
for American photography — not on
the grounds of ethnic affiliation, but as a
resource for changing visions of being in
modern times:' says Blair.
Among the living photographers with
work on view are street photographer
Vivian Cherry, who has been taking pic-
tures of the Lower East Side since her
early adulthood; and Bob Adelman, best
known for his iconic photographs of the
civil rights movement.
Cherry, at the age of 90, still roams her
city in search of the perfect photo, more
likely than not of an unsuspecting person.

Vivian Cherry: Girl Walking on Second

Avenue, 1996

She studied with the influential
founder of the New York Photo League,
Sid Grossman, who inspired her with his
gritty pictures and "stimulating classes."
"Sid influenced and nurtured many
photographers, not with his personal style,
but emphasizing the quest for the mes-
sage, and to get to the core of the situation
presented, to use one's expertise to com-
municate a point of view:' says Cherry.
"I am drawn to photograph people. I
like to watch them and to record their
feelings, as expressed through their faces,
their attitudes, their behaviors, their
manners and their clothing. I go out in
the streets to photograph several times
a week. Sometimes I like what I see, and
other times I feel frustrated, but I console
myself with the word 'practice: I relish
every moment of the adventure."
As an adult, Cherry gravitated to and
lived in the Lower East Side for many
years. "The mixture of Jewish, Italian, Irish
and other immigrants there captivated
me:' she explains. "I found it visually fasci-
nating, vibrant and convenient.
"When I walked through the streets, I
heard Yiddish, Italian and many other lan-
guages spoken. I was able to photograph a
kosher butcher, an Italian coming out of a
package store who looked like he had just
arrived from Sicily, Irish ladies shopping,
men and women stopping to chat, or to sit
with one another. Then, gradually, as the
older residents moved, Spanish-speaking
people moved into the area to make better

Bob Adelman: Interracial Couple Dancing
at a Party, 1962

lives for themselves and their children."
And the neighborhood has continued
to change. "Today the Lower East Side is
no longer just a refuge for the poor:' says
Cherry. "It also has changed to become a
magnet for younger people who can afford
the present market rentals."
For the show, curator Sara Blair selected
a color photograph of Cherry's, Girl
Walking on Second Avenue, which captures
an audaciously beautiful young woman
walking toward the camera, glance askew,
lightly clad, her attempt at aloofness corn-
ing across as more vulnerable than cool.
Behind, a group of men watch her pass.
Cherry took the photo on the Lower
East Side; her subject was unaware that
she was being photographed.
"The reason I did photograph her was
because she and the men behind her and
the overall scene interested me visually,
and I thought it was typical of the Lower
East Side today, the juxtaposition of grit
and glamour."
For photographer Bob Adelman, 80,
New York City's Lower East Side is a vivid
place that has captivated his imagination
since early days, when his family would
load into the car and make the hour-long
drive from the Rockaways.

By the time Adelman had begun tak-
ing pictures for pay, places like Ratner's
and Katz's were still in business, but the
neighborhood had shifted toward a larger
Latino population. Adelman had interned
with photographers and was now on his
own, having turned the democratic social-
ist ideals that defined his upbringing into
a deep personal commitment to the civil
rights movement.
Armed with the leather strap of his cam-
era around his wrist as he had heard Henri
Cartier-Bresson had done lest he need to
use the camera in self-defense, he
volunteered for the Congress of Racial
Equality (CORE) and accompanied
the other members on freedom rides
to the segregated South.
"We'd meet on Saturday mornings
and get on the bus and picket:' says
Adelman. "One of those episodes,
I was functioning as photographer
with no credentials. Any picture I
took could be sold for $5, if it were
chosen. This was pure idealism, not
economically motivated.
"When we returned to New York, there
was always a party on the Lower East Side,
and it was one of the places where the
races mingled.
"The picture of the interracial couple
was an early photograph of mine and was
taken at one of these post-freedom ride
parties. At the time, I was just grateful to
have taken a clear photo. I didn't know I
was capturing history." ❑

Kimberly Kunoff is public relations coordinator

for the Jean & Samuel Frankel Center for
Judaic Studies in Ann Arbor.

"The View From Below: Photography
and Innovation on the Lower East
Side" runs Nov.12-Dec.18 at the
Institute for Humanities Gallery, 202
S. Thayer, Room 1010, in Ann Arbor.
Gallery hours are 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
There will be an opening reception,
with a talk by curator Sara Blair, 4-6
p.m. Thursday, Nov.18, in the gallery;
and a panel discussion, 12:30-2:30
p.m. Monday, Dec. 6, at the Alumni
Center, 200 Fletcher, in Ann Arbor.
Free and open to the public; groups
are welcome. (734) 936-3518;
www.lsa.umich.edu/humin or
www.lsa.edufludaic.

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