New York after winter storm Jonas
31/01/2016.
[NY] USA
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
New York is a changing city, in constant transformation, but at the same time it is also an iconic city. It is part of our collective imagination and is therefore quite recognizable and stable. It has been the most photographed city in the last century, so when something alters its landscape, it always catches our attention.
Central Park. New York covered in snow. Photography © Montse Zamorano
Central Park. New York covered in snow. Photography © Montse Zamorano
Broadway. New York covered in snow. Photography © Montse Zamorano
New York covered in snow. Photography © Montse Zamorano
New York covered in snow. Photography © Montse Zamorano
New York covered in snow. Photography © Montse Zamorano
Entrance to the subway on the 7th Avenue. New York covered in snow. Photography © Montse Zamorano
Entrance to the subway on the 57th Street. New York covered in snow. Photography © Montse Zamorano
Elevated parking lot. New York covered in snow. Photography © Montse Zamorano
New York covered in snow. Photography © Montse Zamorano
The greatest changes in the city's common landscape are not caused by real estate agents, the destruction of historic buildings or the construction of beautiful or disastrous skyscrapers. Major changes are instead caused by nature, demonstrating the fragility of our icons. Sandy, and now Jonas, come to reveal how vulnerable our imaginary is.
In the case of the winter storm Jonas, the first one to affect the East Coast metropolis this season, people are not having a very good time. The cold is tough but it also brings about a calm vision once the storm is over.
When we got Montse Zamorano's images from the day after the storm, we asked her about her first impressions, but above all about the typical silence that lays over everything after the storm.
In a city like New York discovering that you can listen to the silence is always a surprise:
It's strange not to hear noise in New York. However, on Saturday Jonas silenced the bustle of the city, the shouting in the streets, the sound of cars and sirens, only the blizzard was heard instead.
Excited about the first snowfall this season, we decided to go to Central Park. Once on the street, snow came from all directions. Gusts of wind blew up the snow and made it complicated to see and walk. I had my camera with me but didn't take it out in case it would get damaged, so I took all the photos with my phone.
The town was half empty and we only met a shopkeeper removing the snow in front of his store, a couple of taxis or a delivery man moving around very slowly and, surprisingly, several runners training in shorts. Meanwhile, snow was piling up on the sidewalks and in the streets. At 2:30 p.m. all travel was banned except for emergency vehicles and soon after all the shops were closed.
The day after was completely different. It was sunny and groups of friends and entire families carrying sleds and mats could be seen in the streets on their way to Central Park. People threw themselves down the slopes of the park, made snowmen or even went cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. The cars run along the main streets and some sidewalks had been cleared, but side streets were still full of snow, which had turned from white to gray.
Jonas is over now and has left a city full of snow and ice that will take weeks to disappear from the sidewalks. Meanwhile, the continuous bustle of people, beeping of cars and the sound of sirens are back.
Montse Zamorano
Montse's photographs let us discover a different, unpolluted and clean Manhattan, covered by a white mantle it becomes a pristine metaphor of itself. The images of a utopian purity for Manhattan are nothing but another delirious vision of Manhattan, transcribed by Montse Zamorano's exceptional pictures.
José Juan Barba
More information
MONTSE ZAMORANO
Montse Zamorano Gañán (Madrid, 1985) is an architect specialized in architecture photography, always looking to integrate new strategies, tools and methods of marketing and branding for the outreach and support to architecture and design.
She has photographed for architects such as Foster and Partners, Álvaro Siza or Héctor Fernández Elorza and published in architecture media such as Metalocus, TASCHEN, Casabella, Architectural Record, Arquitectura Viva or Detail. Her visual work has been finalist and selected in international awards and festivals and her pictures displayed in exhibitions in Madrid, Valencia, Milan and Shanghai. She greatly enjoys teaching and has lectured and conducted workshops in Harvard-GSD, Keio, Pratt, NJIT and ETSAM.
She studied architecture at the Polytechnic University of Madrid and IIT Chicago, and she holds a Master in Branding at SVA and a Master in Integrated Marketing from NYU as a Fulbright and LaCaixa Scholar.
JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
José Juan Barba (1964) architect from ETSA Madrid in 1991. Special Mention in the National Finishing University Education Awards 1991. PhD in Architecture ETSAM, 2004. He founded his professional practice in Madrid in 1992 (www.josejuanbarba.com). He is an architecture critic and editor-in-chief of METALOCUS magazine since 1999, and he was advising different NGOs until 1997. He has been a lecturer (in Design, Theory and Criticism, and Urban planning) and guest lecturer at different national and international universities (Roma TRE, Polytechnic Milan, ETSA Madrid, ETSA Barcelona, UNAM Mexico, Univ. Iberoamericana Mexico, University of Thessaly Volos, FA de Montevideo, Washington, Medellin, IE School, U.Alicante, Univ. Europea Madrid, UCJC Madrid, ESARQ-U.I.C. Barcelona,...).
Maître de Conférences IUG-UPMF Grenoble 2013-14. Full assistant Professor, since 2003 up to now at the University of Alcalá School of Architecture, Madrid, Spain. And Jury in competitions as Quaderns editorial magazine (2011), Mies van der Rohe Awards, (2010-2022), Europan13 (2015). He has been invited to participate in the Biennale di Venezia 2016 as part "Spaces of Exception / Spazi d'Eccezione".
He has published several books, the last in 2016, "#positions" and in 2015 "Inventions: New York vs. Rem Koolhaas, Bernard Tschumi, Piranesi " and collaborations on "Spaces of Exception / Spazi d'Eccezione", "La Mansana de la discordia" (2015), "Arquitectura Contemporánea de Japón: Nuevos territorios" (2015)...
Awards.-
- Award. RENOVATION OF SEGURA RIVER ENVIRONMENT, Murcia, Sapin, 2010.
- First Prize, RENOVATION GRAN VÍA, “Delirious Gran Vía”, Madrid, Spain, 2010.
- First Prize, “PANAYIOTI MIXELI Award”. SADAS-PEA, for the Spreading of Knowledge of Architecture Athens, 2005.
- First Prize, “SANTIAGO AMÓN Award," for the Spreading of Knowledge of Architecture. 2000.
- Award, “PIERRE VAGO Award." ICAC -International committee of Art Critics. London, 2005.
- First Prize, C.O.A.M. Madrid, 2000. Shortlisted, World Architecture Festival. Centro de Investigación e Interpretación de los Ríos. Tera, Esla y Orbigo, Barcelona, 2008.
- First Prize. FAD AWARD 07 Ephemeral Interventions. “M.C.ESCHER”. Arquin-Fad. Barcelona, Sapin 2007.
