Skip to Main Content

New York at Night

1936
(American, 1899–1998)
America, 20th century
gelatin silver print
Image: 18.9 x 28.3 cm (7 7/16 x 11 1/8 in.); Mounted: 35.7 x 41.8 cm (14 1/16 x 16 7/16 in.); Paper: 18.9 x 28.3 cm (7 7/16 x 11 1/8 in.); Matted: 40.6 x 50.8 cm (16 x 20 in.)
Gift of George Stephanopoulos 2012.393
© Estate of Ilse Bing
Location: not on view
This artwork is known to be under copyright.

Download, Print and Share

Description

In 1936 one of Ilse Bing’s patrons arranged for her to spend almost two months in New York City. In this daytime view of Manhattan’s skyscrapers shot from an elevated train platform, a self-portrait is hidden in the glass cover of the coin-operated scale. Bing also photographed the skyline by night, declaring the city’s lighting “phosphorescent.” The scale of the metropolis made her feel, she recalled, like “an atom wandering in the universe.” Bing and her work were enthusiastically received there. She had a solo exhibition of her photographs and met with magazine officials at Fortune, Time, and Life, which was then still in the conceptual stages. Despite possible employment, she returned to Paris to be with her fiancé, pianist and musicologist Konrad Wolff.
New York at Night

New York at Night

1936

Ilse Bing

(American, 1899–1998)
America, 20th century

See Also

Visually Similar Artworks

Contact us

The information about this object, including provenance, may not be currently accurate. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about this object, please email collectionsdata@clevelandart.org.

To request more information about this object, study images, or bibliography, contact the Ingalls Library Reference Desk.

All images and data available through Open Access can be downloaded for free. For images not available through Open Access, a detail image, or any image with a color bar, request a digital file from Image Services.