Fascinating Vintage Black-and-White Photos of Brooklyn in the Seventies

These photographs were taken by William Gedney, who was born in New York in 1932 and moved to Brooklyn in 1951 to attend the Pratt Institute of Art. Gedney’s works reveal his passionate interest in portraiture, street and night photography, and human nature.

Gedney died of AIDS in 1989. His work, however, was sadly unappreciated during his lifetime. It was not until after his death that Gedney’s creation gained momentum and is now widely recognized.

Take a look through these 11 fascinating vintage black-and-white photographs capturing life in Brooklyn in the 1970s:

Coney Island, 1975.

Coney Island, 1975.

West Indian day, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, September 1975.

West Indian day, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, September 1975.

Brooklyn, 1975.

See more»

Before Just Kids: The First Photos of Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith Taken by Lloyd Ziff in 1968

New York photographer Lloyd Ziff launches a new photography book, Desire, a photo series dedicated to the charismatic relationship between Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe.

Capturing the striking bond between the two creatives, the new book celebrates the alluring yet intimate trance of their personalities across 65 unpublished works.

“In 1968 Robert was living with Patti in a little apartment near mine in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. They were always working, making paintings and drawings and sculptures, and the walls of their apartment were covered with their work. They were both very young and I found them very beautiful.

I asked to come over to their place one day to shoot portraits of them. They were among the first double portraits I shot. Patti published two of them in her book, Just Kids, in 2010, and credits them as the first portraits made of the two of them.” - Lloyd Ziff

Here are the first photos of Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith taken by Lloyd Ziff in their Brooklyn apartment in 1968.

See more»

Everyday Life of Brownsville, Brooklyn in the Early 1970s Through Amazing Black and White Photos

Brownsville is a 1.163-square-mile (3.01 km2) residential neighborhood located in eastern Brooklyn in New York City. The neighborhood is generally bordered by Crown Heights to the northwest; Bedford–Stuyvesant and Cypress Hills to the north; East New York to the east; Canarsie to the south; and East Flatbush to the west.

Founded in its current incarnation in 1858, Brownsville was initially a settlement composed of Jewish factory workers. The neighborhood underwent a major demographic change in the 1950s that saw an influx of African-American and Latino residents.

Since the late 20th century, Brownsville has consistently held one of the highest poverty and crime rates of any neighborhood in New York City.

These amazing black and white photos were taken by Winston Vargas that show everyday life of Brownsville, Brooklyn in 1972.

See more»

27 Amazing Vintage Photos Capture Everyday Life of Brooklyn in 1946

Brooklyn is big. If it were its own city, and not part of Gotham, its 2.5 million residents would make up the fourth largest metropolis in the United States. Brooklyn covers almost a hundred square miles of intensely varied terrain, from the beaches of Coney Island and Sea Gate to the brownstones of Park Slope and the thronging sidewalks of Williamsburg—a neighborhood filled with stoop-shouldered young men who, evidently, can afford fedoras but have difficulty finding socks, or pants that fit.

There’s cobblestoned Dumbo; the mean streets of East New York; the mansions of Brooklyn Heights; the tree-lined avenues (and, miracle of miracles, driveways) of Ditmas Park; the glories of Prospect Park; the soaring container cranes of Red Hook; the unnameable, party-colored, aromatic ooze of the Gowanus Canal.
The borough boasts countless ethnicities, creeds and religions. It’s somehow wildly bustling and unselfconsciously low-key at the same time. It has given the world memorable phrases (fuhgeddaboudit) and immortal delicacies (the egg cream—with no egg and no cream).

Decades before Brooklyn became synonymous with hipsters, hip-hop and locavores, photographer Ed Clark caught the spirit of the place just right after World War II.

View of the Manhattan Bridge, connecting Brooklyn with that island across the East River, 1946.

Trolleys & tracks at corner of Flushing Ave., Graham & Broadway.

Brooklyn, New York, 1946.

Corner of Middagh and Hicks, Brooklyn Heights, 1946.

Jumping rope on Siegel Street near Humboldt, Brooklyn, 1946.

See more»

18 Amazing Black and White Photographs That Capture Street Scenes of Brownsville, Brooklyn in 1972

The 1970s were a highly recognizable era for Brooklyn, from the graffiti’d stoops to the local dress, the comparative lack of tall buildings and the ubiquity of mom and pop shops. These amazing black and white photographs were taken by Winston Vargas, documenting everyday life in Brownsville, Brooklyn in 1972.

See more»