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Alfred Eisenstaedt
1942
Below are some photos of New York City that the ever-diligent photographers at NYC Daily Pictures recently posted. I think they are good images, capturing beautiful sun light making the building glow on the top photo; the background curtain of the Pan Am building in the distance in the second photo; trees, flags and signs making patterns in the third photo; and the Empire State looming in the background in the fourth.
Yet, look at the people. They are an overweight, under-dressed, slothful lot. In one of the most beautiful cities in the world (well, some wold say handsome), we have the ugliest women, or the women dressed in the ugliest manner, walking down its avenues.
Compare these photos of the enlightened 21st century with the one at the top of the blog. It was taken in 1942 by Alfred Eisenstaedt (the photographer who took the famous V–J Day in Times Square photograph). One could argue that midtown Fifth Avenue is not the same as the downtown, more bohemian Fifth Avenue that NYC Daily Pictures has posted, and that midtown Fifth Avenue women are smart, even in 2012. But here is a link to shoppers by Saks Fifth Avenue, and it is the same story of jeans, shapeless coats and dreary colors. Once again, the building outshines the pedestrians. In the pre-slothful era, extending to the 1940s period of Eisenstaedt photograph and into the 1950s, women complemented the buildings around them, looking worthy to walk beside them.
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[Above photos from NYC Daily Pictures]