Peter Bock-Schroeder
They were not the pretty pictures of "willows by the river or beeches in the fog" that he was after, but rather the landscapes of a world violently "disturbed" by man.
New York in 1982, what a story!
Peter Bock-Schroeder's raw picture series takes us back into the past of New York City
New York, 1982
At the invitation of his friend and companion Vera Maxwell, Peter Bock-Schroeder lands at New York's JFK airport on a grey November morning in 1982. He enjoys the time and conversations spent with his former muse Vera Maxwell, who had proposed to him in 1952 with the words "Marry me so that I never get bored and the wolf of hunger stays away from your front door".
New York, 1982
It is the first time he returns to Manhattan, and the first time he meets Vera Maxwell in over 30 years.
New York, 1982
He asks a man dressed in a suit, umbrella and melon for a portrait. The best dressed man in New York, as he later says.
New York, 1982
The 1980s in New York City were turbulent and plagued by crime. The murder rate was at an all-time high, the crack epidemic was raging. The 1980s put the city to the test: residents fled the city in record numbers, government mismanagement led to the near-bankruptcy of the city, and the introduction of crack cocaine triggered an unprecedented wave of drug addiction and violence. But it is also the beginnings of street art as we know it today, with subways tagged and graffiti painted by illegal painters.
New York, 1982
For a photo of the World Trade Center he climbs the scaffolding of a bridge.
New York, 1982
A burnt-out taxi on the streets of New York
New York, 1982
Ho Ho Ho, no Christmas is complete without Santa's visit. Every year, tens of thousands of letters addressed to Santa Claus arrive in Manhattan's General Post Office, and they read like a script for New York itself: Stories of need and greed and glittering expectation, of entitlement or alienation, of the chance to get something for free, or even sometimes to win nothing at all except the chance to give it to someone else.
New York, 1982
Peter Bock-Schroeder takes his Leica and now wanders through the city, without commission and without fear. There is no flood of pictures. Peter Bock-Schroeder photographs most of the motifs only once.
New York, 1982
He sees an interesting guy in a public phone booth. Without knowing who he is looking at, he photographs Andy Warhol as he passes by.
New York, 1982
Central Park was a dangerous place in the 1980s. The park was covered in garbage and graffiti, the meadows were barren dust-bowls, the playground equipment and benches were in decay, and the one-hundred-year-old infrastructure was crumbling.
New York, 1982
The New York subway is a serious matter — the rackety train, the silent passengers, the occasional scream.
New York, 1982
Peter Bock-Schroeder's New York pictures are a personal record and a farewell to an old love.
Looking at photos: The era of the great masters is over. What remains are the gems of the analog years.
5 Reasons to collect Bock-Schroeder
20th Century Photography
January 14, 2019
February 4, 2019
Disturbed Landscapes
Where does my fascination for photography come from and how did I become a photo journalist?
January 29, 2019
Soviet people
His journey took him through the huge space of the former Soviet republics - from the oriental south to the far north, from western Russia to the Siberian east.
January 25, 2019
House Doorn - Kaiser Wilhem's II last exile
In 1960 Peter Bock- Schroeder visited the Villa Doorn, Kaiser Wilhelm's II exile.
21st Century Photography
- Edition Box NYC 1982
- The portfolio is available in an edition of 10 and contains:
- 12 analog printed Barytha Prints from the New York Series 1982
- Black and White 40 x 50 cm
- In an original photo paper box
- Produced from the original negatives
- Stamped and signed by the estate administrator Jans Bock-Schroeder
For more information about the NYC 82 Edition Box please contact the Bock-Schroeder Foundation: Enquire