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A Glimpse Inside Hundreds Of Brooklyn Apartments In The 1970s
By
Ben Yakas
Published Dec 11, 2020
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Dec 11, 2020
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Photographer Dinanda Nooney never lived in Brooklyn, nor did she have any significant personal connection to the borough, but her work has become synonymous with the area. That's because between January 1978 and April 1979, Nooney took photos of around 200 people's homes in various Brooklyn neighborhoods.
Nooney, who moved to Manhattan in the early 1970s, worked on George McGovern's campaign in 1972 against Richard Nixon, photographing his rallies in Brooklyn as well as helping organize in the city. A few years later, some of her Greenpoint coworkers from that time became the first people to allow her to photograph them inside their homes.
"Johnny Redd at home. 416 Waverly Ave., Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. April 6, 1978."
These photos offer a wealth of details about the time period, as well as glimpses into people's private lives, with equal attention given to the interiors of the homes as the people residing in the interiors.
"After a year and a half, she had over 576 photographs from all over the borough," said Elizabeth Cronin, Assistant Curator of Photography at NYPL. "Each photograph is labeled with the family name, address, and date. Most of the photographs are of middle-class families and yet, they show a diverse range of lifestyles. The collection as a whole is a fascinating window into interiors in the late 1970s as well as it is an interesting study in portraiture and self-presentation."
You can look through all 576 photos from the project, which Nooney gave as a gift to the New York Public Library in 1995, here. And the NYPL also created an interactive map showing where the apartments are located, so maybe you can see what your studio looked like when it was the living room of a single-family home.
<p>Joseph & Mary Merz. 48 Willow Place, Brooklyn. January, 1978. </p>
Gothamist
As part of our month-long Dear NYC series, we're looking at New York City gems hidden away at the New York Public Library. The NYPL’s four research centers offer the public access to over 55 million items, including rare books, manuscripts, letters, diaries, photographs, prints, maps, ephemera, and more. Integral to these robust collections is the Library’s extensive material related to New York City, and as NY works to come together, cope, heal and recover from the 2020 pandemic, economic uncertainty, and the many issues that divide us, it is important to look at that history and remember: New York is resilient. New York is strong. New York has seen its share of hard times. And, as always, with Patience and Fortitude (the names given to the Library’s beloved lions in 1933 by Mayor LaGuardia for the virtues New Yorkers needed to get through the Great Depression) we will get through it, together.
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Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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