Exhibitions: Click! A Crowd-Curated Exhibition

Eric Orns. Centuries Clash In Brooklyn, 2000. All rights reserved

Artist Statement

This photograph, taken in April 2000 with a Pentax K1000, reveals several eras in Brooklyn’s history. It centers on its soul—the iconic bridge moodily standing in the distant mist, shrouded in time. Witness the early and late twentieth centuries clashing: the obsolete tracks on loosening cobbles mingling with crumbling pavement and infrastructure leaning over to glimpse the reflection of its soul, pondering its ultimate destiny. Today, while the street retains its eclectic history, the sidewalk is repaved and the utilitarian parking lot has transformed into green parkland. The twenty-first century now compliments the best of the nineteenth and twentieth!

25 Comments

great shot and composition

This photo is classic and gorgeous!

This photograph is a very hynoptic convergence of light and shadow with the classical remains of Brooklyn as the visual centerpiece.

Outstanding capture!

This is GORGEOUS, perfect shot

Great symmetry in terms of composition and message. The height of the bridge itself reflected in the muck of the puddle shows the extremes of life in the city. The tiny flag on the top of the bridge seems almost an ironic touch when the foreground of decay looms so close.

wonderful photograph. perfect homage to the Brooklyn bridge. Thank you.

Brooklyn Bridge, ever iconic...

Spectacular photo - would have loved it even more if the photographer had gone back today to compare the changed landscape.

this shows potential change - a little place on the verge of it.

Love the reflection - a worthy capture.

very nice image, even though it doesn't really speak to the theme

Very well done shot, iconography. What I like about it is that, although the caption is well-written, the shot is "self-explanatory" -- many of the other images are not. Definitely one of the best in the exhibit.

Now we're getting there! This is "Brooklyn". I liked it.

beautiful photo - iconic and atmospheric

This is the best photograph I have evaluated so far! Wow.

wonderful image, use of B&W works beautifully for the reflective view

very pretty, I like the atmosphere

Congratulations! This is a fantastic composition and DoF! — Posted by James Hanlon

I LOVE BLACK AND WHITE — Posted by D.

perfect shot! love it — Posted by blake deakin

One of my favorite shot in this gallery — Posted by Irene C.

thats by seaport! what a pretty view. — Posted by christina

Fascinating that this photograph is the highest-rated image of evaluators who live outside of Brooklyn, but it is nowhere to be seen in Brooklynites' top ten (see "Top Ten Compared" and select "Evaluator Location"). Are we less interested in this subject because many of us see the bridge every day, and we are therefore less enamored of it? Or is it because the Brooklyn Bridge does not represent the "changing face(s) of Brooklyn" to us? Speaking for myself, it seems to me to be the *least* changing thing in Bklyn... — Posted by Amy

THIS IMAGE CAPTURES THE RAW GRIT OF DUMBO. ESPECIALLY EFFECTIVE IS THE TONALIST QUALITY OF THE PICTURE, GREY, BLACK CHARCOAL. — Posted by LESLIE