A Walk Through Gilded New York — Gilded Age re-photography project

The Gilded Age in New York City, much like contemporary New York, was full of opulence, power, and wealth. A Walk Through Gilded New York is a mobile app I worked on with the Museum of the City of New York. We visited 16 key locations throughout New York City, and I rephotographed them, doing my best to match the angle and perspective of the archival images.

Download the app A Walk Through Gilded New York from the Apple Store or Google Play, and you’ll learn about how the famous families such as the Astors, Carnegies, the Fricks and the Vanderbilts held lavish parties, financed iconic buildings and mansions and founded cultural institutions. Some of the structures are long gone, but most are among the treasures of New York City architecture that make the city a vibrant place to explore. In addition to the app, you can view all of my images here or click on the locations below.

I chose to capture all of the images digitally with a tilt shift lens mounted onto my Nikon. Then in post, I worked to warp the images over the vintage photographs to match the perspective and angle more closely. 

It's fascinating to see all the differences in the city but also how so much would be recognizable to a person of that era. It's precisely this layering of histories that makes the experience of walking in a city like New York so pleasurable. In spending so much time with each location, it was great to slow down and notice the differences all the while imagining the photographers of that era lugging around their large cameras, setting them up and making the pictures. 

Actress Grace Gummer narrates the tour. The app curated and written by Jessica Lautin and produced by Acoustiguide for the Museum of the City of New York.

The Siegel-Cooper department store

The Metropolitan Club

Cornelius Vanderbilt II Mansion

James B. Duke House

The Metropolitan Museum

William K. Vanderbilt Mansion

Mrs. William B. Astor House

Metropolitan Opera House

Waldorf Astoria

The Plaza Hotel

Andrew Carnegie Mansion

JP Morgan House

Henry Clay Frick House

Felix Warburg Mansion

Lord and Taylor

Tiffany & Co., Union Square Flagship Store

Suddenly Fall

I recently slipped away from New York to the quiet towns and forests of Western Massatuchettts to see the colors of the trees and enjoy some r n r. Accompanying me on this trip was a rented DJI Inspire 1. It was my first time flying a drone; it was a lot of fun and an incredibly powerful tool. The drone was nearly at 400 ft when I captured the image above.

 Miller's River. © 2016 harlan erskine.

French King Bridge, Millers Falls, MA. © 2016 harlan erskine.

 Fall colors over Greenfield, MA. © 2016 harlan erskine.

 East Mineral Road Bridge, Millers Falls, MA. © 2016 harlan erskine.

 Looking South from Poet's Seat Tower. © 2016 harlan erskine.

Looking west from Poet's Seat Tower. © 2016 harlan erskine.

New Still Lifes for Glass

Fresh off the presses is Glass, a pop-up magazine created by J. Walter Thompson in partnership with Getty Images. The publication explores the current and future passions, motivations, aspirations, and behaviors of women. I contributed three still life spreads for the collaboration.

You can read more about Glass and download the publication here.

Beauty for the Kitchen. Harlan Erskine for Glass.

To see the rest of my still lifes click here.