New York State of Mind

Documentary photographer Cooper's exquisite and eclectic portraits of New York City in 1975 create a world at once removed from and inextricably tied to the soaring crime rates and crumbling neighborhoods of the 1970s. Without captions or titles, Cooper's crisp black and white photos document everything from a mother and child in Central Park to an unself-conscious naked man being interviewed on the street by a television reporter. Despite a conspicuous lack of street signs, Cooper's photographs are unquestionably “New York”: her relaxed, candid subjects reveal more about their city in their smiles and sideways glances than any map could. Her most affecting work involves children: at play among the ruins of their neighborhoods, leaping from abandoned rooftop to rooftop and running through hydrant geysers. Cooper's eye for everyday rituals in her adopted city is as sharp as her eye for the outrageous: the men calmly walking their llama down the street have the same intensity as the elderly man reading alongside a baby carriage in a park. Readers will delight at the opportunity to pore over each image, creating their own stories as they go along. (Nov.)