An iconographic and text archive related to communication, technology and art.
☛ Of New York: “New York, 1972” by André Kertész, Knopf, 1976, p. 27
The photo was taken in 1972. Ground work for the construction of the towers begins in 1966. The first tenants began moving in the buildings on december 1970. The actual dedication ceremony for the World Trade center was held on April 4th, 1973. For more see PBS: Timeline: World Trade Center (1942-2002).
If I’m not mistaken, André Kertész took this photo from the window of his own apartment in New York, as seen below. In the distant background, the Twin Towers are easily identifiable. In the middle ground, barely discernible in this image, is the church with the triangle roof where the cross must be installed.
This image is a screen capture from an episode of the Master Photographers series produced by the BBC in 1983 (at 01’05”). The rooster sculpture in the foreground is easily recognizable from another photo of the Twin Towers taken by André Kertész (image source):
The same view was explored in at least one photo of André Kertész’s series Polaroids (Amazon, review at Photography 24/7). In the following photo, the church roof can clearly be seen in front and at the base of the towers:
The iconic photo also appears on the cover of the American editions of Don DeLillo’s novel Underworld since it was first published in 1997 (Scribner, Google books, Amazon).
More online resources about André Kertész:
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