Photographic Portrait Of Roosevelt Island Residents Project Would Like To Take Your Picture - Neighbor Cecile Kranzer-Walschaerts Inspired By 1969 Phillip Johnson & John Burgee Roosevelt Island Master Plan To Create Portrait Of Residents

Cecile Kranzer-Walschaerts is a photographer and Roosevelt Island resident. Her upcoming exhibit is a photographic portrait of Roosevelt Island residents.

 Image From Cecile Kranzer-Walschaerts

 Ms. Kranzer-Walschaerts writes:

Portraits of Residents
A Photographic Project on Roosevelt Island

Dear neighbors,

I have lived on Roosevelt Island for several years. As part of a photography course at NYU, I have tried to portray residents of Roosevelt Island.

These photographs will be discussed with other students during the class and some of them will be on display at a graduation exhibition at a gallery in Lower Manhattan, August 11, 2015.

I'm looking for people from Roosevelt Island who will agree to be photographed in the course of this project, at their homes or on the island.

I only have a few weeks to complete the project.

If you would like to participate, you can contact me by e-mail: walschaerts@gmail.com

Give my thanks to everyone on the island. And thank you for your help.

Cécile

Ms. Kranzer-Walschaerts adds:

In 1969, American architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee accomplished the dream of turning an inaccessible island, located in the heart of New York City, into a modern metropolis of 20,000 inhabitants.

This island, which lies next to the island of Manhattan, was to become a place of joyous tranquillity surrounded by water and trees, a car-free zone dedicated to pedestrians and cyclists. Residents who the designers hoped would live in this place included families with children, single people, seniors, the middle class and the poor. It was a dream of social diversity in the heart of the city.

On this site, residents would find new housing, of course, but also offices, shops, a hotel, a nursery, a fire station, a library, two hospitals and a chapel. The place is romantic and its insularity would make it a separate territory.

This documentary photography work is inspired by the text and plans that the architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee presented in 1969 to New York City’s mayor at the time, John V. Lindsay. This is a document of about twenty pages, entitled, The Island Nobody Knows. Nearly fifty years later, I confront the imagination of these two visionaries in the daily lives of the residents of Roosevelt Island.

Tuesday August 11, 2015
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM
@ Soho Photo Gallery
15 White Street
TriBeCa, New York City
http://sohophoto.com/

Image Of Island Nobody Knows From Metropolitan Museum Of Art

The Island Nobody Knows is available in the Metropolitan Museum Of Art Digital Collection.

Please contact Ms. Kranzer-Walschaerts if you would like to participate in the photographic portrait of Roosevelt Island residents project.

More information on the Phillip Johnson and John Burgee Roosevelt Island Master Plan at this previous post.