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Photographs we have collected (and still own) and some now housed within public collections
John Albok (1894–1982)
An Hungarian photographer who immigrated to the United States and documented New York City street scenes from the 1920s to 1980.
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| Rainy Day Madison Avenue |
This rainy day scene is one of a half dozen black and white vintage photographs of New York I bought from American dealer Alex Novak‘s sales (Vintage Works - link below) in the early 2000s. The images reminded me of my few visits to the city over the previous decades.
Some prints have been gifted to friends but this 1942 one of Madison avenue between 96 and 97th streets in East Harlem Manhattan’s Upper East side, by Hungarian born New York tailor and photographer John Albok, remains on my bedroom wall. In the sheer abundance of details, delicious tonal changes, light play and atmosphere, the Albok image epitomises what classic black and white photography does so well.
Many viewers will know the experience of being inside looking out on rainy days when time seems to stop and tasks or activities we’d like or need to do, are stalled. It is a fitting work to reflect on in winter. Great photographers excel at evoking such an intense experience.
In the picture heavy rain droplets are hitting the ground and the parked cars. The light makes arabesques of light patches on the curvy car shapes. It could be a movie set just before something happens. One car approaches on the upper right but there are no people and the shops seem closed. The wild competing angles in the picture are like some abstract painting, dark shapes of fire hydrant railing awnings and sloping road and two black carts are empty and parked seemingly safe from theft as no one would dream of taking them in this neighbourhood. In the day time of a clear business day they would be loaded up and being pushed by men or boys doing deliveries possibly the lowest paid workers around.
Wet days were popular subjects with Impressionist painters and dusk scenes with turn of the century art nouveau artists but who takes a picture of bucketing rain on an empty street and make the centre largely a rain splattered roadway. Who is out and about as a street photographer in such inclement weather. The local tailor was there.
The story of this photographer makes the image very personal and special. This is Madison Avenue in East Harlem not the glam end that features in the MAD Men TV series set in of 1950s-60s.
John Albok migrated to New York in 1921 as a trained tailor aged 27 and in 1923 set up his own business in upper Madison Avenue and remained there until his eath in 1982. He had been taking photographs since he was 12 and dreamed of art school but had to take on a trade at 13.
World War One brought tragedy to his immediate family but his military service involved being a photographer. He continued photographing after the war and in New York. He used a 5 x 7 view camera and later a twin-lens reflex camera, turning his shop into a darkroom at night. He married in 1925 and the couple had a daughter they lived above the shop.
Albok was very active despite his day job and during the Depression actually turned to running a portrait studio . He found his subjects close at hand but included political and social subjects like May Day and Labor Day parades, antiwar demonstrations, and anti-Vietnam War rallies.
He always regarded himself as an artist and attracted attention for his work. In 1929, he submitted a portrait of his daughter to the Eastman Kodak Amateur Photo Contest and won. In 1937, he won a weekly photo contest held by the New York Herald Tribune . This brought him to the attention of Grace Mayer, a curator for the Museum of the City of New York, and led to a one-person exhibition, entitled Faces of the City, at the Museum in 1938. He only occasionally exhibited his work and was discovered in 1980s. Albok buit a large archive and his work is held by various collections including the New York Public Library.
There are several books and documentary films on Albok. I have researched the location and can see that the street and charming buildings from the early 20th century remain and the neighbourhood character is much the same.
links:
Vintage Works Ltd, Fine Photography
An introduction to his achievements and his biography: Fine Art Estates
ND Magazine link for more pictures.
other essays: On Our Collections
more of Gael Newton's Essays and Articles
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