5th Ave., New York, N.Y., c. 1948

Details

LOUIS FAURER (1916–2001)
5th Ave., New York, N.Y., c. 1948
gelatin silver print, printed 1980
signed and titled with date of image and of print all in pencil (verso)
image: 10 3/8 x 8 ¾ in. (26.3 x 22.2 cm.)
sheet: 14 x 11 in. (35.5 x 27.9 cm.)

Provenance

Deborah Bell Photographs, NYC;
Collection of Joshua Smith, Washington, DC;
acquired from the above by the present owner, 1999.

Literature

'Louis Faurer', Photo Poche, 1992, p. 23.
Anne Wilkes Tucker, Louis Faurer, Merrell Publishers/Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2002, p. 31.
Louis Faurer, Louis Faurer, Steidl, Göttingen, 2016, p. 151.

Conditions of sale

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Rebecca Jones Associate Vice President, Specialist, Head of Department

rjones@christies.com +1 212 636 2567

Lot Essay

Here, in 5th Ave., New York, N.Y., c. 1948, Faurer has spotted identical twin sisters in the midst of a sea of faces on a crowded 5th Avenue sidewalk. Their matching side parts, cat-eye glasses and patterned, collared shirts spotlight their presence as a focal point at the foreground of the photograph. The immediacy of their unique appearance is visually contrasted against the anonymity of the blurred faces of busy New Yorkers walking briskly behind them, while the towering skyscrapers of Midtown, classically frame Faurer’s subjects in a noteworthy composition of one-point perspective in a Post-War America.

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