D.U.M.B.O. (Dog Crossing Street)

In these two photographs from the 1990s, Anthony Randell captures the atmosphere in the Brooklyn neighborhood known as DUMBO (short for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) before its gentrification. The area was developed as a manufacturing district, close to the Fulton Ferry landing, in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century. In the wake of the de-industrialization of the Brooklyn waterfront, artists moved into the decaying district in the 1970s in search of large studio space and cheap rents. Over the past fifteen years, developers converted many of the old buildings to luxury apartments and turned the waterfront into an attractive park. While the area today is thriving, most artists have been forced to move to less expensive Brooklyn neighborhoods such as Bushwick and Sunset Park.