Ulrich Eckhardt and Werner Duftmann – SoHo Downtown Manhattan
Authors : Eckhardt, Ulrich ; Duttmann, Werner
Title : Soho – Downtown Manhattan
8vo, photographically illustrated softcover, no dust jacket.
Published in 1976 by Akademie Der Kunste – Berliner Festwochen
This is a rich survey of the arts in early SoHo during the 1970s, prepared by Ulrich Eckhardt and Werner Duttmann. Their exhaustive documentary about SoHo became the catalog for the exhibition organized in Berlin by the Akademie der Kunste titled “SoHo: Downtown Manhattan”.
The interest of this photobook is to have anticipated and recognized SoHo as the centre of the American contemporary art, and to some extend of the world, and to have relied primarily on photography to document it. The authors felt compelled to cover a wide range of artistic disciplines that illustrated the dynamic artistic life and spirit in SoHo. They have gathered an incredible amount of photographs, both from happenings in the streets or in galleries. These photographs, accompanied by some essays, were organized in different chapters for this publication, reflecting some of the major artistic movements and disciplines. The book also includes maps of the Flux mazes, choreography diagrams, and examination of SoHo architecture and social life.
The extensive use of photography turns this book into an important document of art history, but also to understand the socio-artistic dynamics that can propel a city into world capital of the arts.
New York Photobooks 