By Paulina Gajewski
The Brooklyn College Library announced its latest art exhibit on Sept. 1. Photographs shot in black and white are showcased along the walls of the lobby, all of which are works of BC alumna Marcia Bricker Halperin. The photographs, spanning over the 1970s decade, illustrate diverse communities across the city.
The works include locations such as the public markets of the Lower East Side, Spanish Harlem, Coney Island, and Flatbush. They do not just capture a rich metropolis, but the struggle of certain communities against a backdrop of a changing landscape.
In an interview with The Vanguard this past Friday, Sept. 15, Halperin recounted the beginnings of her career as a photographer. “I’ve always wanted to be an artist, since I was young,” she said. “The city’s museums were my school.” New York is at the core of vast artistic movements and resources, including its variety of museums and installments.
The 1970s is a decade that we look back to with extreme nostalgia. Voluminous hair and flared trousers. Protests and hippies and flower power. Rollerblades, Led Zeppelin, and disco. All of these conjure images of a romanticized period of the past. The very same time period which was plagued by economic and political troubles.
Entering a dire fiscal crisis, crime rates increased exponentially. Paired with the damage from the rampant blackouts, New York City was believed to be in an irreversible decline.
And yet, over 50 years later, the 1970s is one of the most glamorized periods in American history. Forms of media aim to capture the zeitgeist of the era, one of the most popular ones being photography.
Halperin attended Brooklyn College with the hopes of pursuing art history. “I thought I was going to make great sculptures. Maybe a printmaker. But I took a photography class at the same time, and it suited me,” she said. “My parents got me a camera, and I was off.”
Some of her fellow artists at Brooklyn College included Barney Cole, Walter Rosenblum, Lee Bontecou, Jimmy Ernst, and Lois Dodd. Originally, Halperin had wanted to leave Brooklyn, regardless of it being a hub of urban fervor. Taking courses in the art department, she realized that world class artists were teaching here.
Halperin’s motivation to stay in the field stemmed from the array of women photographers. She listed Helen Levitt and Bernice Abbott as two inspirations, both female American photographers dealing with the subject matter of New York City. Halperin got to study with Lisette Model, while teaching at the New School at the time, and was primarily known for her street photography.
Halperin’s works are in-depth studies of the specific locations she would photograph. Wandering around the first floor of the library, the photographs are notably from Coney Island and Kings Highway and their cafeterias. They then make their way to Spanish Harlem and the Lower East Side. Public markets, she noted, are institutions that bridge the gap between social classes.
The 1970s are not just of interest to those who came from the time period. Newer generations can see pictures from a time that they can now only hear about. Not only do the features and fashion choices interest them, but also the nostalgia of a period that they cannot witness for themselves.
Each time Halperin chooses a location, she will often establish a rapport with the community. “I’ll go back time and time again,” she said, “so that when I go back into the location, people start to recognize me. I like to establish a community with the people I am photographing.”
Since graduating from BC, Halperin has been photographing the city for almost fifty years. Her photography has been in exhibits at the Brooklyn Museum, the International Center of Photography, and the Edward Hopper House Museum. This year, she also published her book, “Kibbitz & Nosh: When We All Met at Dubrow’s Cafeteria.”
Halperin’s exhibit has come full circle, as most of her education occurred in that very same library. She spent her time searching through the esoterically labeled shelves for the large dusty art books on the third floor, and watching classic films in the basement during club hours. “A lot of my education in the arts happened in that building,” Halperin reminisced. “So now coming back and exhibiting is a great feeling.”
BC will be hosting a reception with the artist in the library on Thursday, Oct. 26, at 5 p.m., and the exhibit will be on display until Nov. 10.