Legacy: The Preservation of Wilderness in New York City Parks: Photographs by Joel Meyerowitz - Hardcover

Lopate, Phillip

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1597111228 ISBN 13: 9781597111225

Publisher: Aperture, 2009

Hidden pockets of wilderness still exist within the urban environs of New York City, and in Legacy Joel Meyerowitz invites us to discover them. This beautiful body of work is the result of a unique commission Meyerowitz received from the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation to document the city's parks. During the course of this project, Meyerowitz honed in on the 8,700 acres within the five boroughs of New York City that still exist in their original pristine state, as well as areas within parks that have been left to revert to wilderness. In creating this work, Meyerowitz has drawn on his own childhood memories of a New York that included "green space--open and wild, alive with rabbits, migratory birds, snakes, frogs and the occasional skunk--[that] gave me my first sense of the natural world, its temperament and its seasons, its unpredictability and its mystery." Through this rich compendium of images of parks, shorelines and forests, Meyerowitz's magnificent project transports the viewer into the heart of a lush wilderness, while contextualizing these nooks of nature as an inextricable part of city life today.
Joel Meyerowitz (born in New York, 1938) is an award-winning photographer whose work has appeared in over 350 exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world. He is a two-time Guggenheim fellow, a recipient of both NEA and NEH awards, as well as a recipient of the Deutscher Fotobuchpreis. He has published over 15 books, including Cape Light (1978) and Aftermath: The World Trade Center Archive (2006). He lives in New York.

Review:

"Who knew that the five boroughs had so many parks, encompassing 29,000 acres of greenery? In his systematic tour of what is left of the city's natural landscape-and where it is even being enhanced, thanks to Mayor Michael Bloomberg's campaign to plant a million trees-Mr. Meyerowitz uncovers odd and charming hideaways that most native New Yorkers will not have visited or even heard of." -- Richard B. Woodward --Wall Street Journal

"The book is a glamorous celebration of the city's unspoiled open spaces and a poignant reminder that while New Yorkers are consumed by congestion, tens of thousands of acres are occupied by parks, playgrounds, nature preserves, beaches and amusement areas, as well as golf courses, stadiums and cemetaries." -- Sam Roberts --The New York Times

"...a beautiful collection of landscape images, by which Meyerowitz documents, interprets, and celebrates one of New York City's greatest legacies: the 8700 acres within the parkland system in the five boroughs that have been left or returned to their natural state... The book is a true treasure, and not just for New Yorkers." -- John Lavine --Color Magazine

"Without photographic trickery, it is possible to frame images of nature in and around New York City without including telltale clues to the metropolitan environment. That is one of the significant visual coups found in this large-format title, but it is accompanied by other worthwhile disocveries as well. The shots, which range from some of the best-known vistas in Central Park to virtually hidden sylvan details in the northern city outreaches, places us in natural ecosystems that can show the presence and sometimes intrusive hand of people." -- Mike Moch --The Bloomsbury Review

• Publisher: Aperture
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1597111228
• ISBN 13: 9781597111225
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 300