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Throwback Thursday: People From a ‘Vanished Time’
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Was a child during this time but the brown and tan tiling in your first photo elicited a forgotten but vivid memory of a local diner our family used to eat at. Do you recall where this picture was taken? Maybe that style was just ubiquitous in the eighties. Great shots all around!
Same. But there used to be so many diners. Let’s see. There was one on 87th and Broadway before it became Saigon Grill I think. There was the one on 86th and Amsterdam. There was one on Columbus and 79th or so. There was the burger place on 93rd and Broadway..sigh
These pictures were taken in the 1980’s, but they look like people from a much earlier era. For example, very few people still wore fedora by the 1980’s.
Older men certain wore a hat like the one in the photo. And might he be a banker since the photo was taken at Central Savings Bank.
These are a wonderful time capsule. They offer a stillness that seems to be lost by everyone constantly using technology to communicate, consume, and do business. I’m sure this is not true but the photos make me think that attention was steadier and minds a bit quieter, less manic.
Amanda, what a wonderful observation – I think you’re right. We don’t know what we’ve got til it’s gone …
I love these. Keep them coming!!!
Ditto.
Not sure why. But I’ve been drawn back to these photos several times and enjoy each and every one of them. The color contrasts, subject’s facial expressions and postures, and their surroundings are stunning.
I absolutely love these photos. There is so much to see and imagine in each one. Thank you for capturing the emotions and details of life in each one of these individuals.
Fascinating
Look! Newspapers! And THICK newspapers. Must be the Sunday NY Times.
Yes. I can smell them!
Great photos!
These are terrific! Would love to see more.
Question: Which luncheonette or old school candy store is in the first one?
I am surprised no one has mentioned those fabulous stacks of Sunday NYTs. That brings memories flooding back too. These Hopperesque images are a savory time capsule, Stephen, when artifice was minimal. I often wonder where all the older New Yorkers now go – it used to be that folks were kibbitzing around and enjoying each other’s company at the triangular Broadway parks and on benches in Broadway medians. Is everyone alone, behind closed doors? You never see people hanging out. Also, I wonder how old all these New Yorkers in your portraits are. Perhaps younger than we think. Please post more!
Yes, a combination of “Hopperesque,” and “Rockwellesque.” Love it!
Pictures taken of old people (I’m one of them) now would only be different because the old people now would not be the same old people then.
Excellent photos.
They all look familiar, as though I passed by them to and from school. Bthey were a permanent part of the neighborhood, and was essential to its richness.
The photos are wonderful, they stir so many feelings it is hard to put in a comment.
Thank you, WSR, for publishing articles like this one. It is a gem.
Great stuff!
Oh my goodness, I remember some of them.
thank for the memories
I left New York last year, I lived in West 96th and Amsterdam and there was an older couple that were parents of a building superintendent down the block. The father has a bushy mustache and sparkling eyes and always wears a white dress shirt and black pants and a black jacket and the mother wears a black cardigan and a skirt and a kerchief on her head tied under the chin. I loved seeing them take a walk around the block for the awareness that they are part of a culture that has been erased probably forever.
Loved the photos. I remember those days well. In fact, I particularly remember the lady vendor selling hot dogs.
I feel strongly affected by these photos. I’m going to try to walk more slowly when I’m out on the street & be more observant of the people around me.
Susan
These are beautiful. Thank you for the moment in time.
What a trove! Boy do they evoke memories and feelings. Thank you–
Does anyone recognize the gentleman in the last pic? The one standing by the think copies of the Sunday Times? He looks so familiar to me… I was living around 66th Street between CPW & Columbus at the times. His face is a face I know I saw nearly every day – but was he a denizen of the UWS or perhaps he was a doorman at one of the buildings in the area?
I lived on W 89th & Amsterdam in early 90’s. The gent looked so familiar to me as well. I thought perhaps a music conductor, actor, writer, politician….could have strictly been a zabars regular.
Someone called these photos “Hopper-esque”.
DEFINITELY! Especially the top photo, which evokes Hopper’s famed “Nighthawks”, a 1942 work depicting a New York “lunch counter” at night.
B/T/W: recommending the eerie work of George Tooker, whose surrealist paintings of a subway station, a Motor Vehicle office, etc. are both frightening and wonderful!
Wonderful, thank you.
They all ha e the look of my Italian grandparents a little worn out a little weary honest, salt of tne earth, no pretense another time of course lost especially in our age of image
I prefer more modern shots of the morbidly obese, soiled homeless, and building scaffolding.
In all seriousness, these pictures are glorious. Are you selling prints?
I do sell my work.
THOSE WERE THE DAYS ….
that guy is selling the weirdest looking ties I’ve ever seen
LOL weird looking belts
Very poignant view of people. Vacant stares, sadness, lonely, outcasted, displaced, tired…all we come in contact with on a daily basis…but probably never really ‘see’ nor take the time to make a difference in someone’s day. Thanks for the wonderfully insightful photos. They really make you think.
Great pics. Would love to know where each location is, if possible.
People on this board say the man in the last photo looks familiar. There was an actor named Oscar Beregi Jr. who looked an awful lot like this guy. He appeared in Young Frankenstein and a Twilight Zone episode.