(Burckhardt, "Astor Place" 1947, gelatin-silver print, 7 3⁄8 x 7 1⁄2 inches)

Rudy Burckhardt moved from Switzerland to New York in 1935, when he was 21, and liked what he found.  He befriended leading artists and poets and his photographs of New York serve as a history of his adapted city.  A new exhibition at Museum of the City of New York reminds us that he combined careful social observation with a powerful sense of formalism. 

(Burckhardt, "Flat Iron in Summer" 1947, gelatin-silver print, 11 x 9 inches)

His black and white photographs are small, usually around the size of a book, yet they are exceptionally engrossing -- every inch of a print is revealing.  Today's New Yorkers may be surprised to find that the city once contained subways with upholstered seats, barbers offering shaves for less than a quarter, and tobacconists selling Cuban cigars. But some things remain the same: The Flatiron Building still looks great, women everywhere wear smart shoes, and the views down the canyons of buildings towards the Hudson River are still inspiring. 

(Burckhardt, "Times Building" ca. 1948, gelatin-silver print, 9 x 7 inches)

During his six decades in the Big Apple, Burckhardt accepted how the city and its people changed remarkably.  And ultimately it's his humanity that makes him, even almost a decade after his death, very much an artist of our time. -- DAVID COGGINS

(All photos courtesy of the Estate of Rudy Burckhardt and the Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York)

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