Douglas R. Gilbert

Street Shots: New York’s Financial District in 1965

These photographs, made in the financial district of New York City, are a result of a self-assigned project executed between January and May in 1965.  The World Trade Center towers had not yet been built.  I was working at LOOK Magazine at the time and would photograph in the district on days when I wasn’t required to be in the office or away on assignment.

I had lived in New York for one year, after moving from a small town in the Midwest, and was struck by the vertical space in the financial district.  The narrow, winding streets were like paths at the bottom of canyons, except these walls were made of concrete and glass.  The people in the streets were dwarfed by the immense concrete structures.  I saw some symbolic correspondence between a monolithic financial system, with all of its power, and the seemingly insignificant individual in the street.

I was curious about whom the people were who populated the district and what it felt like being on the street.  Though I saw few homeless persons, there was more variety than I expected.  There were financiers, bankers, junior executives and stock exchange runners, but also delivery persons, sanitation workers, chauffeurs, and an occasional beggar.

On the weekends it was a ghost town.  There were few residential buildings in the immediate area, and streets were empty, quiet and most stores were closed.  This was an area of commerce, and little else.

Although the players have changed, clothing styles and car models are updated, there is timelessness about the Wall Street district and its inhabitants.  Lunch breaks in Battery Park are still escape from the canyons and workers gather in the streets to exchange news and catch up on one another’s personal lives.  What happens in the banks and stock exchanges of New York’s financial district still has a profound impact on America’s economy.

Biographical Information

Born 1942, Michigan. Gilbert has been a serious photographer for more than 40 years. His work has been published in countless national and international publications. Gilbert’s photographs are in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, as well as in many private and institutional collections.

Recently, Gilbert has released his fourth book, Forever Young: Photographs of Bob Dylan, and another book, C. S. Lewis: Images of His World has been re-issued. The photographs in the book of Bob Dylan have been shown in Los Angeles, Boston and London.

Current project: Light as a formal element in the landscape of Italy.

1964. B.A. Michigan State University. Social Sciences, Art minor.
1964- 1966. Staff photographer, LOOK Magazine, New York City.
1967-1969. Freelance photographer. New York City.
Freelance photographer, Chicago.
1972. M.S., Photography. Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of
Technology, Chicago.
Assistant Professor of Art. Wheaton College (Illinois).
Architectural photographer, Newburyport, MA.
1993. M.S.W., Salem State College (MA)
1993 to present. Psychotherapist, private practice; Photographer, self-employed.

Publications: Widely published in U.S. and internationally, including LOOK, LIFE, SATURDAY EVENING POST, AMERICA (U.S. Information Agency), GLAMOUR, GQ.

Books:
FOREVER YOUNG; PHOTOGRAPHS OF BOB DYLAN, Da Capo Press, New York: 2005.

C.S. LEWIS; IMAGES OF HIS WORLD, Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI. 1973, reissued 2005. (coauthor, Clyde S. Kilby)

FLANNERY O’CONNOR; IMAGES OF GRACE, Wm. B. Eerdmans Co., Grand Rapids, MI: 1986. (coauthor, Harold L. Fickett).

THE STEPS OF BONHOEFFER, Pilgrim Press, Philadelphia: 1969. (coauthor,