1000 on 42nd Street

by Maira Kalman, Yolanda Cuomo, Neil Selkirk (Photographer)

Imagine trying to capture the mood, the zeitgeist, face of the new, revitalized New York City at the beginning of the millennium, brimming with confidence, self assurance, and immense satisfaction with the way things are with the city, with the economy - a city remade by a bullish Wall Street and the redoubtable Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
Tibor Kalman, famed designer and consulting art director for the 42nd Street Development Project, commissioned Selkirk to complete such a task. The purpose of the project was to decorate, with very large, laminated construction site fence posters, the profound structural and cultural changes taking place in Times Square. So Selkirk shot head-on, full-frame, 1,000 people of all shapes, colors, and origins - some famous, some four-legged - passing through the Crossroads of the World, asking of each only name, hometown, and reason for being in Times Square.
The results are lively, engaging, and surprising; a millennial look at who we are and where we're going, and how we feel about ourselves in the world's most famous city.

320 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1999

About the author

Maira Kalman was born in Tel Aviv and moved to New York with her family at the age of four. She has worked as a designer, author, illustrator and artist for more than thirty years without formal training. Her work is a narrative journal of her life and all its absurdities. She has written and illustrated twelve children's books including Ooh-la-la- Max in Love, What Pete Ate, and Swami on Rye. She often illustrates for The New Yorker magazine, and is well known for her collaboration with Rick Meyerowitz on the NewYorkistan cover in 2001. Recent projects include The Elements of Style (illustrated), and a monthly on-line column entitled Principles of Uncertainty for The New York Times.

She lives in New York and walks a lot.

(http://www.saulgallery.com)

Reviews

[ivy · Rating 5 out of 5]

people watching in book form :) really fun read

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book at a time when 42st in the entertainment district of New York City was being demolished and rebuilt. Photographer Yolanda Cuomo set up a photo stand for people to come and take a picture. Their picture would later be blown up to poster size and put on the walls of the construction site to shown all the different peoples' love for this one area.

It is a collection of head shots of all types of people, of all races and ages, and even species.