New Exhibition at Brooklyn Collection: "Brooklyn, Then and Now" Photography Project

This year we’ve had the pleasure of once again working with two high school interns through the Multicultural Internship Program (MIP). Emal and Erfana spent the months of July and August shadowing our reference staff, learning about our collections, and conducting their own research into Brooklyn history. As in the past two years, the culmination of the interns’ time with us is the Brooklyn, Then and Now photography project. In this endeavor, interns choose old images from our photograph collection and then visit those sites to take a contemporary snapshot of the same location. The comparisons one can draw from a side-by-side pairing of old and new are often surprising and always illuminating.

The above view of Manhattan from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, taken in 1954, shows a downtown with its share of skyscrapers, albeit fewer than the contemporary view taken by our interns, below.

Emal and Erfana worked hands-on through the entire process of mounting the exhibit, from choosing old photographs to mimic, to researching neighborhood history, to visiting the various sites to take new pictures, to preparing their photographs for display.

Their photography will be on view here in the Brooklyn Collection through the end of November, and we'll be celebrating the opening of this new exhibit on Wednesday, October 24th, at 6:30pm, prior to the latest installment of our monthly lecture series. Light refreshments will be served, and the public is welcome.