NEW YORK 2000 – 2002

(Christoph Ribbat in the preface of the book)

“Some New York dreams are over. New dreams will form. These images deal with the time between dreams – with the nervousness that arises when the city suddenly does not make sense anymore. They document the urban infighting, the sudden, inevitable confrontation, New Yorkers up close, as gruff as the garish colors that interrupt this black-and-white cycle.”

(FAZ, 2003)

“Weary gazes, strange gestures: Images of New York

Let’s get straight to the point: it has been a long time since a more exciting photobook about New York was published. Every image has the force of a punch in the face, yet at the same time one feels that photographer Andreas Herzau did not want to scan the city with his wide-angle lens, but rather to caress it, as it were. Beginning in the autumn of 2000, he observed the enigmatic street theatre unfolding amid the canyons of skyscrapers. He collected weary and fearful gazes, strange gestures and quiet moments. These snapshots would have lost none of their impact even without September 11. Yet the terrorist attacks and the months that followed, during which Herzau continued working intensively, transformed his discoveries into an analysis. Arranged without regard for chronology, his photographs portray a fragile world that is conscious of the fragility of its foundations—and in which high heels are worn almost defiantly.”

(Der Spiegel, 2003)

“A metropolis before and after an attack: How much has New York changed as a result of September 11, 2001? Hamburg-based photographer Andreas Herzau presents a photobook featuring photographs taken between 2000 and 2002: a puzzle, an unsettling experience. He shows street scenes in black and white and bursts of colour in the park; he shows people who are horrified, smiling or afraid. He shows the sky with aeroplanes, initially withholding the year in which each photograph was taken. Anyone who wants to know will find the information only on the penultimate page of the book. The trick works. It is not always easy to assign the images to the ‘before’ or the ‘after’. Perhaps this is how it is: the images themselves have not changed all that much, but they are read differently than before. Old symbols acquire new meanings—the American flag now also stands for defiance, rather than simply pride in one’s country. An aeroplane in the sky no longer promises freedom and new beginnings, but threat and danger. Looking upwards, one thinks one can discern anxiety in people’s faces, even when it may not actually be there. Has New York changed? Probably. Because we see it differently.”