Sidney Kerner photographs
Call Number
Date
Creator
Extent
Language of Materials
Abstract
Images of Midtown structures and construction sites, such as the AT&T Building and IBM Building, that appeared in the New-York Historical Society exhibition "Manhattan observed: fourteen photographers look at New York, 1972-1981," which ran from July 1981 through April 1982.
Biographical / Historical
Brooklyn native Sidney Kerner (1920–2013) joined the Photo League in 1937, when he was just 17. During World War II he served in Okinawa, Japan, with the 28th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron. After his time in the military Kerner was as a motion picture film cameraman. Between 1953 and 1961 he worked as a lighting director for NBC, and from 1961 until his retirement in 1991, filled the same position at ABC. Kerner's photographs are held in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the New York Public Library, and the International Center of Photography, among other American and international repositories.
(This note draws from information on the photographer's defunct website: sites.google.com/site/sidneykerner/.)
Arrangement
Photographs are organized by their numerical position in the New-York Historical Society exhibition "Manhattan observed: fourteen photographers look at New York, 1972-1981," which ran from July 1981 through April 1982.
Scope and Contents
These images were exhibited at the New-York Historical Society in "Manhattan observed: fourteen photographers look at New York, 1972-1981" from July 1981 through April 1982. Kerner's photographs show buildings and capture structural details of construction sites in Chelsea and midtown Manhattan. Examples include the IBM Building (590 Madison Avenue) under construction as reflected in a bus window, graffiti at the AT&T Headquarters construction site, a crane reflected in the wall of glass windows of an office building, and the interior of the structural skeleton of AT&T Headquarters (later the Sony Building, 550 Madison Avenue).
The prints—ranging in size from 16 x 20 to 19.5 x 23.5 inches—were produced from the photographer's negatives by Modernage Photographic Services, Inc.
Subjects
Access Restrictions
Open to qualified researchers by appointment only. To schedule an appointment, contact the Print Room Librarian at printroom@nyhistory.org.
Use Restrictions
Photocopying undertaken by staff only. Limited to 20 exposures of stable, unbound material per day. Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to: Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282.
Copyrights and other proprietary rights may subsist in individuals and entities other than the New-York Historical Society, in which case the patron is responsible for securing permission from those parties. For fuller information about rights and reproductions from N-YHS visit: www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions.
Preferred Citation
The collection should be cited as: Sidney Kerner Photographs, PR-193, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections, New-York Historical Society.
Credit line for exhibitions: "Gift of Sidney Kerner in memory of Mary Black, October 20, 1992."
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Sidney Kerner, 1992.
About this Guide
Processing Information
This collection was removed from the Photographer File (PR-050) and inventoried by Jennifer Lewis in November 2002. Joseph Ditta migrated her WORD-document finding aid to ArchivesSpace in July 2020.