Image via MCNY
Todd Webb is known for his photographs of New York taken when he moved to the City in 1945, after being discharged from the Navy. His year-long trekking throughout the City turned into several decades, and the end result is a history of New York, taken with his large format camera. Webb captured the end of the Third Avenue Elevated in the 1950s, and a plethora of streetscapes that now only exist in photos.
The Museum of the City of New York currently has on view the first major museum exhibition of Todd Webb’s work since the Museum first exhibited his early images in 1946. The exhibit, entitled “A City Seen: Todd Webb’s Postwar New York, 1945-1960″ consists of more than 100 images, accompanied by Webb’s own journals.
Included in the exhibit are photographs of his friends and fellow-photographers – Alfred Stieglitz, Harry Callahan Bernice Abbott, Helen Levitt, and Lisette Model.
A City Seen: Todd Webb’s Postwar New York, 1945-1960 will be on view through September 4, 2017 at the Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue, at 103rd Street.
On May 16 at 6:30pm, there will be a panel discussion of authors and curators who will examine the world of street photography in the 1940s and 50s. In conjunction with A City Seen: Todd Webb’s Post War New York, 1945-1960, the panel will include Sid Kaplan (NYC Street Photographer and Professor at SVA); Daniel Okrent (Author of Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center, 2004); Julia Van Haaften (Independent curator and author, including forthcoming biography of Berenice Abbott); and Sean Corcoran as Moderator (Curator of “A City Seen: Todd Webb’s Post War New York, 1945-1960).
The book, “I See A City: Todd Webb’s New York” will focus on the work of the photographer in New York City in the 1940s and 1950s. Preorder your copy now. Book arrives in November, 2017.