Abstract

Wandering around her studio on 57th Str., Nelly’s photographed the surrounding skyscrapers with the same awe and sensitivity that she had recorded the classical Greek monuments in the interwar years. Nelly’s also photographed their construction. Following a picture story narrative, the photographer stepped back to situate the construction sites in the urban landscape and moved closer to depict workers in action while employing, at times drastic, cropping to emphasise the scenes. When in April 1956 Alexey Brodovitch asked Nelly’s and her coursemates at the New School for Social Research to work on the theme of “Fantasy”, she chose to photograph the famous Easter Parade on 5th Avenue. Responding to her teacher’s advice to employ an “active camera”, Nelly’s photographed ladies in elaborate dresses, furs, and imaginative spring hats, kids in their Sunday best, and even pets adorned with matching accessories, sometimes squeezing with her Rolleiflex un-noticed like a spy in the crowd, other times openly confronting her subjects. Nelly’s also amalgamated showcases of easter decorations and luxury goods in nearby shop windows with reflections of high-rise buildings, passers-by, urban traffic, and signage in surrealist multi-layered images.