| | | | Susan Meiselas: Tar BeachLife on the Rooftops of Little Italy 1920–75Foreword by Martin Scorsese.
 Found family photographs from New York's Little Italy portray a vanished way of lifeA Chicago Tribune 2020 holiday gift guide pick
In Tar Beach, photographer and Little Italy resident Susan Meiselas (born 1948) brings together found pictures that were made, kept and gathered by various families who handed them down from 1940 to the early 1970s. Reflections from the community offer perspectives of multiple generations, as local author Angel Marinaccio says: “If you had an accomplishment—communion, confirmation, wedding, graduation or birthday, you‘d dress up in your best outfit and go to the rooftop to take pictures and celebrate with your family.”
The introduction to Tar Beach is written by renowned filmmaker Martin Scorsese, who grew up on the streets portrayed in this collection. He writes: “The roof was our escape hatch and it was our sanctuary. The endless crowds, the filth and the grime, the constant noise, the chaos, the claustrophobia, the non-stop motion of everything … you would walk up that flight of stairs, open the door, and you were above it all. You could breathe. You could dream. You could be.”
Meiselas, along with two of her neighbors, Angel Marinaccio and Virginia Bynum, collected and curated these vernacular photographs and memories to convey the feeling of this special place and time in the daily lives of Italian immigrants as they made their way to becoming part of American culture.
Featured image is reproduced from 'Susan Meiselas: Tar Beach.'PRAISE AND REVIEWSBlind Miss Rosen The ultimate escape — without leaving home — tar beach offers city dwellers the space to feel like they are king of the world as they survey the jagged landscape from new heights, their views unimpeded by buildings blotting out the sun. The indelible sensation of being transported to a veritable mountaintop does marvelous things to one’s mind, opening a magical portal into a world where anything is possible. |
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| | FROM THE ARTBOOK BLOG CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 10/26/2020 At last, Memorial Day weekend is upon us, and after this excruciatingly long and strange year, we are ready to shout to the rooftops and celebrate! Featured image is reproduced from Tar Beach: Life on the Rooftops of Little Italy 1920–75, Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas' infectious recent collection of mid-century found family photographs from the rooftops of New York's Little Italy. "The roof was many things," Martin Scorsese writes in his Introduction. "It was where people raised and trained pigeons, like Brando in the Kazan picture. It was where romances happened. There were even weddings on the roof. I tried to recreate one of them in the home movie section of Raging Bull, and the roof is there in Mean Streets and in my first feature, Who's That Knocking At My Door?
The roof was our escape hatch and it was our sanctuary. The endless crowds, the filth and the grime, the constant noise, the chaos, the claustrophobia, the non-stop motion of everything … you would walk up that flight of stairs, open the door, and you were above it all. You could breathe. You could dream. You could be." continue to blog | |  | STEIDL/C/O BERLINISBN: 9783969990025
USD $95.00 | CAN $130Pub Date: 5/24/2022
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|  | DAMIANIISBN: 9788862087223
USD $45.00 | CAN $63Pub Date: 10/13/2020
Active | Out of stock
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|  | DAMIANIISBN: 9788862085694
USD $35.00 | CAN $47.5Pub Date: 3/27/2018
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