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NYC Street Photographer's 1950s Photos Found, Headed To Queens Museum Of Art
By
Jen Carlson
Published Jan 27, 2012
Modified Jan 28, 2012
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Jan 27, 2012
Modified Jan 28, 2012
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
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Starting February 5th and running through May 20th, the Queens Museum of Art will be showing off the work of photographer Frank Oscar Larson, who documented the streets of New York in the 1950s. They're in possession of "several thousand historic negatives hidden from sight for 55 years," and will bring 65 of them in print form to their "1950s New York Street Stories" installation. Larson was a Queens banker who had a "lifelong passion for photography" and yielded a tremendous images of everyday life in 1950s New York.
The negatives had been stored in more than 100 envelopes meticulously notated with location and date info in Larson’s own hand. Since their discovery, Larson’s grandson Soren has been overseeing the scanning and printing of the 55 year old images. According to Soren Larson, “Photographs dating back to the 1920s attest to the fact that he was always the family shutterbug. But it wasn’t until the early 1950s that Frank’s passion for photography blossomed. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, Larson made weekend expeditions around New York with his Rolleiflex Automat Model 4 camera around his neck, producing thousands of images which he developed in a basement darkroom.
Check out some of what he captured here, before seeing the show next month.
Tagged
frank oscar larson
photography
queens museum of art
street photography
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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