“The city was my home. As I look back at the work I did during that period, I realize that I was a witness to a time that no longer exists, a more innocent time. While I know that the city has changed, that the streets are dirtier and meaner, the energy that I love is still there. No matter where I go, I keep coming back to photography New York. Of course the “good old days” were not all sweetness and light. There was poverty, racism, corruption and violence in those days too, but somehow we believed in the possible. We believed in hope.”
~
Arthur Leipzig
(1918 - 2014)
“Having seen so much it seems that Arthur Leipzig wanted to go on seeing much more land what he has shown us remains hauntingly clear. His images say, look at us and be born again. Taken out of time they refuse to grow faded, and with the clock moving on, Arthur Leipzig’s camera should be moving with it. He should never yield to inactivity. Life as he shows it is what life is all about.”
~
Gordon Parks
(1912 - 2006)
Over the years, I’ve noticed that many great photographers—as well as other creatives and successful men and women across a wide range of fields—were born in Brooklyn. There must have been something in the water that gave them the drive and energy to explore life to the fullest.
Arthur was no exception. He loved to wander the streets of New York, where children played freely, using the streets as an extension of their crowded tenements.
He was a witness to a time that no longer exists—except through his powerful photographs.