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recto overall
Bryant Park, New York City
recto overall
recto overall

Bryant Park, New York City

Artist N. Jay Jaffee (American, 1921 - 1999)
Date1953
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage, sheet, mount: 7 5/16 × 9 inches (18.57 × 22.86 cm)
Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.
Object number2005.27.4048
SignedSigned on mount verso, center, in pencil: "N. Jay Jaffee"; On mount verso, upper left, white label with black type: "N. Jay Jaffee / 224 [torn maybe "28"] MANOR ROAD, QUEENS VILLAGE, N.Y. 11427 / NO. _____ / LOCATION _____".
InscribedOn mount verso, lower right, in pencil: "BRYANT PARK, NYC 1953 / Image chosen by Steichen for / MoMA Collection - / First Shown in MoMA / 51 American / photographers".
MarkingsOn mount verso, bottom, in black pen: "9" [circled].
On View
Not on view
Collections
DescriptionImage of men wearing suits seated on exterior stairs near large columns. Two of the men are are seated with their eye closed while two on the far left read a newspaper.Gallery Label

Though the men in this photograph sit near one another, they appear isolated in their own private worlds. N. Jay Jaffee reveals an experience of living in a city: though we may be surrounded by people, we can still feel alone. A native New Yorker, Jaffee returned to the city after serving in World War II. He purchased his first camera in 1947 and began taking photography classes at a union hall with Sid Grossman.

According to Jaffee, “The photographs I made [after the war], although not mainly political, revealed my sympathies. They are of working people who lived ordinary, unglamorous lives. They were, in a sense, a reflection of who I was. To photograph them was a way of ennobling their existence—and affirming my own.”

Provenance
Photofind Gallery, New York, NY;
Purchased from Photofind Gallery by Hallmark Cards, Inc., Kansas City, MO, 1988;
Given by Hallmark Cards, Inc. to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2005.
Published References

Keith F. Davis, The Life and Work of Sid Grossman (New York: Howard Greenburg Gallery, 2016), 228 (repro.).

Copyright© The N. Jay Jaffee Trust
Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.


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