In Time Of Plague

Brian Rose has made quite the specialty of documenting the hidden histories of distinct geographic localities: The Berlin Wall, The Meatpacking District, The Lower East Side, Atlantic City, and now- Williamsburg, Brooklyn during Covid. Williamsburg is an area that has experienced hyper gentrification since the eighties, an area in Brooklyn that was largely split between distinct Hasidic and Puerto Rican neighborhoods; it followed the now well proven formula of an influx of artists and hipsters seeking cheaper rent, followed by the inevitable onslaught of big real estate and other well monied interests and residents. Out go the poor and low wage workers of color, in come the luxury condo owners with their accompanying Black nannies and caretakers like a scene from Ye Olde South (I kid you not- it was a common sight, pre-Covid)- but I digress...

Rose is more than adept at capturing the details and nuances that speak to the hidden histories behind that which is in plain sight. In Williamsburg, Brooklyn: In Time Of Plague, he deftly uses shadows, rain swept streets and the contrasting and competing styles of architecture to accentuate those vastly sweeping changes, changes further emphasized by the highly unoccupied streets of "these uncertain times."

 

Photo: © Brian Rose

I've walked these same streets on many an occasion, but unlike Rose I don't have the visual goods to show for the effort. I've considered and framed that very storefront many a time, and well... I'm just glad someone was able to do it justice. I have a general rule that I don't get a photobook unless it has at least twenty winners that I think capable of standing on their own. I can easily pick around two dozen in this case, and the rest of the photos add nicely to support and advance the overall character of this transitionary neighborhood in this transitional period of time. Oh, and the reproductions, in a word- superb!