Title: Walking the High Line

Original title: Walking the High Line
Photographer: Joel Sternfeld
ISBN: 978-3-95829-764-7
Publisher: Steidl
Year: 2023
Price: C$59

About the Photographer

Born in 1944, Joel Sternfeld is a renowned American photographer and a major figure in fine-art photography, known for his penetrating observations of American society and landscape.

Working primarily with a large-format camera, he captures moments from everyday life and uses them to reveal social change, urban landscapes, and human stories. His photography combines elements of realism and fine art, offering keen insight into human activity and its relationship with the environment.

Sternfeld has received numerous photography awards. His work has been exhibited in museums and galleries, and he has published many photobooks. Among his best-known works is American Prospects.

Walking the High Line

New York’s High Line was built in 1934 as part of the West Side Improvement Project. Raised thirty feet above the ground, the freight railway ran between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues. It was intended to remove dangerous trains from the streets of Manhattan’s largest industrial district. Unfortunately, it failed to put an end to traffic accidents.

Before New York’s subway system came into widespread use, the railway employed “West Side Cowboys” to ride ahead of the trains waving flags, helping pedestrians cross the busy streets. Unfortunately, some people ignored their warnings and ran across the tracks rather than wait, resulting in accidents. For decades, the area was known as Death Avenue.

After the last train thundered down the tracks in 1980, the High Line became one of New York’s abandoned spaces, part of yet another impoverished neighborhood. Over time, the rails began to rust, while decaying ties and ballast became a growing medium for weeds. Wild grasses and flowers spread along the old railway.

In the 1990s, property developers wanted the High Line demolished and the area redeveloped with galleries, restaurants, and luxury housing. In one of his final acts as mayor of New York, Rudolph Giuliani signed an order authorizing its demolition.

Two local residents, Robert Hammond and Joshua David, saw its potential. The two civic activists sought an injunction and took legal action to protect the site and put it to new use. In 1999, they founded Friends of the High Line, the nonprofit organization through which their plans began to take shape. It raises both private and public funds to maintain and operate the High Line park and its programs.

Against this backdrop, Joel Sternfeld spent more than a year beginning in 2000 photographing this hidden world in every season, tucked away amid the bustle of the city.

The September 11 attacks took place in New York in 2001. Powerful real-estate and political interests sought to demolish the High Line and commercially develop the land beneath it, using the turmoil of that period to advance their plans. Sternfeld sensed an urgent need to publish the photographs.

In October 2001, while the ruins of the World Trade Center were still smoldering, publisher Gerhard Steidl responded to Sternfeld’s urgent request to make a book and flew to New York. Together they designed Walking the High Line, which went into production just seven weeks later.

The first edition was modest in size, yet it allowed New Yorkers to see the secret railway’s beauty through all four seasons for the first time. It played a crucial role in the campaign to transform the High Line into a park.

That vision finally became reality in 2009, when the High Line was transformed into the High Line park. It has proved enormously successful and now welcomes more than two million visitors each year.

Reflections

On color: There is a striking difference between viewing these photographs in the book and seeing them online. The book’s colors are more subdued, with relatively low contrast. Judged simply by what is more visually appealing, the online versions are richer, prettier, and more eye-catching. The possibility that this comes down to the book’s printing quality cannot be ruled out. But given Steidl’s reputation, I am more inclined to believe that the book’s colors are closer to the original work. To me, those muted tones better evoke the atmosphere of a ruin, lending this secluded urban realm an air of mystery.

On photography: For a long time, I have wondered why we take photographs. This book offers one possible answer. On the one hand, the project gave society a window onto a changing place. It provided a basis for understanding public space and helped shape its future. On the other, once the High Line park was completed, the book became a precious historical and visual record of what the railway had looked like before its transformation.

Note: The images are reproduced from the photobook. Copyright remains with the original photographer.

Walking the High Line

Title: Walking the High Line

About the Photographer

Walking the High Line

Reflections

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