'70s New York Through Amazing Black and White Photographs

Reeling from a decade of social turmoil, New York in the 1970s fell into a deep tailspin provoked by the flight of the middle class to the suburbs and a nationwide economic recession that hit New York’s industrial sector especially hard.

New York in the 1970s taken by Ernie Viskupic

Combined with substantial cuts in law enforcement and citywide unemployment topping ten percent, crime and financial crisis became the dominant themes of the decade.

Depopulation and arson also had pronounced effects on the city: abandoned blocks dotted the landscape, creating vast areas absent of urban cohesion and life itself.

American photographer Ernie Viskupic took these amazing black and white photos to document street scenes of New York during the 1970s.

Peeking, New York, 1972

Steuben Day Parade, New York City, 1972

Steuben Day Parade, New York City, 1972

Steuben Day Parade, New York City, 1972

Steuben Day Parade, New York City, 1972

Steuben Day Parade, New York City, 1972

The Collector, New York, 1973

McSorley's Old Ale House, one of the waiters in the back room, New York, 1974

See Bischoff in a cemetery on Staten Island, New York, 1974

The Old Man and the Restroom, New York, 1974

Cigarettes, New York, 1975

Co Faisor, New York, 1975

Derelict Under the Manhattan Bridge, New York, 1975

Fast Mover, New York, 1975

Gene Palma, '70s Subway Drummer, New York, 1975

Greenwich Village, New York, 1975

Heavy Industry, New York, 1975

Manhattan Bridge, New York, 1975

Neighborhood Kids, New York, 1975

Penn Station (5417), New York, 1975

Possessive Shadow, Forest Hills, Queens, New York, 1975

Road Work, New York, 1975

Stripped and Burned Corvette, Somewhere in Brooklyn, New York, 1975

The Artist, New York, 1975

They Paved Paradise, New York, 1975

6 South Street, New York, 1976

World Trade Center, Parade of Ships, Bicentennial Celebration, New York, 1976

A New Town in Town, New York, 1978

Action News, New York, 1978

Impending Progress, New York, 1978

Rectangles, the World Trade Center Towers, New York, 1978

Urban Renewal, New York, 1978

Urban Solitude, New York, probably the Wall Street area on a Sunday, 1979