Artist uses vintage still photos to bring to life bygone New York, Boston, Detroit and DC in incredible moving pictures
Photographs from the 1930s reveal how New Yorkers used to live before their streets and homes were torn down for new construction
- The photos were all taken by Berenice Abbott at a time when the city was entering the mechanized age
- Abbott specialized in taking pictures that captured the lives of ordinary New Yorkers throughout the 1930s
- She captured the diverse people of the city, the places they live, work and play and their daily activities
A series of fascinating photographs by a pioneering female photographer show New York in a state of change in the 1930s.
Photographer Berenice Abbott proposed Changing New York, her grand project to document New York City, to the Federal Art Project (FAP) in 1935.
The FAP was a Depression-era government program for unemployed artists and workers in related fields such as advertising, graphic design, illustration, photofinishing and publishing.
Rather than focus on the iconic sights, Abbott captured the sidestreets, stores, commuters and domestic areas of the huge city.
Her goal was to photograph urban material, culture and the built environment of New York, documenting the old before it was torn down and recording new construction.
She shot 305 photos as part of the project between 1935 and 1939
Abbott's efforts resulted in a book in 1939, in advance of the World's Fair in Flushing Meadow NY. At the project's conclusion, the FAP distributed complete sets of Abbott's images to high schools, libraries and other public institutions in the metropolitan area.
In a New York minute: In the 1930s the city that never sleeps was changing quickly and photographer Berenice Abbott was commissioned to capture the changes
Pies available at an Automat, 977 Eighth Avenue, Manhattan - an automat is a fast food restaurant where simple foods and drink are served by vending machines. In 1902 Joe Horn and Frank Hardart opened the first U.S. Automat at 818 Chestnut St. in Philadelphia. It was America's first coin-operated cafeteria. Customers would put nickels into slots, turn a knob and open a little glass door to get their food. Horn and Hardart used Swedish-patented equipment they had imported from Berlin, which already sported a successful 'waiterless restaurant'.
Pike and Henry Streets, Manhattan - the photos were taken at a time when motorized vehicles shared the road with horses and carts
Whelan's Drug Store, 44th Street and Eighth Avenue, Manhattan - on sale are displays of electrical appliances, clocks, and a Valentine’s Day display of candy
Penn Station, Interior, Manhattan = today the station is the main intercity railroad station in New York City, serving more than 600,000 commuter rail and Amtrak passengers a day. It is reputedly the busiest passenger transportation hub in the Western Hemisphere
Waterfront South Street Manhattan - photographer Berenice Abbott sought to create a broadly inclusive collection of photographs that together suggest a vital interaction between three aspects of urban life: the diverse people of the city; the places they live, work and play; and their daily activities
Tug boat, from water front, Brooklyn, Manhattan - in the 19th century, New York became a railway hub, and steam tugs aided in transporting rail freight down the river into Manhattan, guiding boxcar barges. By 1929, there were over 700 tugs working in busy New York Harbor. Towing has been largely a family business in the past and many of the tugboat captains you'll hear in this episode work for McAllister Towing, founded in 1864 and still a leading name in New York tugboats
Newsstand, 32nd Street and Third Avenue, Manhattan (November 1935) - The New York Public Library archive contains about three-quarters of the 302 images taken by Abbott for the project.
Herald Square, 34th and Broadway, Manhattan - Scholar Peter Barr noted of photographer Berenice Abbott's work: 'She sought to create a broadly inclusive collection of photographs that together suggest a vital interaction between three aspects of urban life: the diverse people of the city; the places they live, work and play; and their daily activities'
A family on a stoop at Jay Street, No. 115, Brooklyn - many of New York's stoops - a small staircase ending in a platform and leading to the entrance of an apartment building or other building - have disappeared. Yet those that remain are still a beloved architectural feature of the city
Lyric Theatre shows a Charlie Chaplin film, Third Avenue between 12th and 13th street, Manhattan. The Lyric was built in 1903 and hosted Shakespeare plays and notable new shows as Cole Porter's Fifty Million Frenchmen, until it was converted to a movie theatre in 1934.
Huts and unemployed, West Houston and Mercer Street, Manhattan -Abbott often avoided the merely pretty in favor of what she described as 'fantastic' contrasts between the old and the new, and chose her camera angles and lenses to create compositions that either stabilized a subject - if she approved of it - or destabilized it if she scorned it
Hot Dog Stand, West St. and North Moore, Manhattan
Washing dries in a court of first model tenement houses in New York, 72nd Street and First Avenue, Manhatta
Much quieter than today: Run-down properties at Talman Street, between Jay and Bridge street, Brooklyn
Ewen Avenue No. 2565 (Bar and grill), Spuyten Duyvil, Bronx - today the area is an upper middle class neighborhood of the Bronx. The name Spuyten Duyvil may be literally translated as 'Spouting Devil' or Spuitende Duivel in Dutch; a reference to the strong and wild tidal currents found at that location.
Palisade Avenue No. 2505, Spuyten Duyvil, Bronx - The International Photography Hall of Fame says Berenice Abbott is 'remembered as one of the most independent, determined and respected photographers of the twentieth century'.
An artist has created incredibly realistic animations of America in the early 1900s based almost entirely on vintage photos.
Alexey Zakharov from Moscow describes his animations as a 'travel back in time with a little steampunk time machine.'
His latest animation is so flawless that it looks as if you're watching real antique footage of the streets of New York, Boston, Detroit, Washington D.C.
Scroll down for video
The films show New York spring to life, with horse drawn carriages driving by as pedestrians walk the streets. Here, a horsedrawn carriage passes by the Queensboro Bridge, also known as the 59th Street Bridge, around the time of its completion in 1909.
The short film, titled 'The Old New World', was a labour of love for the 36-year-old, who spent more than a year on the project.
The four-minute film takes you on a journey through famous landmarks such as Central Park in New York and the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyards, Baltimore.
'I came up with the idea for a full retro-photoanimation project after visiting the Shorpy site,' Zakharov told DailyMail.com.
'This is astonishing place with tons of reconstructed hi-resolution photos. I spent many hours there.
'First I made only one animation shot used a single photo. Then, a year later, I decided to make something more complete.'
Zakharov says there are two main stages to creating animation from photos.
The first involves something known as 'camera projection', which allows him to separate the static and moving parts of each image.
'A picture, cut into layers is projected on the geometry created by 3D software,' he explains. 'I use this geometry to set city backgrounds, buildings and other static elements
'The second stage is creating full computer graphics of characters people, animals, vehicles etc.
Iconic images such as the New York skyline shown here come to life in the video, animating and 'flying' through the city using 3D models created by the artist.
The video pands and moves around the pictures thanks to the 3D modelling techniques used by artist Alexey Zakharov from Moscow
He uses 3D computer models of these objects to help achieve this. 'Then I compiled all the layers in a process known as compositing process.'
The animation is set in a period in whcih America was undergoing a dramatic period of change following the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
Chinatown in New York in the early 1900s was brought to life with the addition of people, horses, and in this case even dogs
This brought to end the prosperity of the twenties and triggered the greatest economic decline in US history.
In 1929 only three per cent of Americans were without a job, by 1933, the unemployment rate had risen to 25 per cent.
Cars on the streets drive by, while people walk in the images as the spring to life.
In this scene, people can be seen walking through Central Park in the 1920s.
Pictured on the left is the Flatiron district in New York in 1931, with the Met Life tower in clear view on the right. Today (right), the same area has so many tall building that the Met Life tower is obscured from view when taking an image from the same angle
The animation of New York provide an incredible contrast to what life is like in the Big Apple today.
The skyscrapers are non-existent and the streets are far from bustling. Images of the Flatiron district in 1931, for instance, clearly show the Met Life tower.
Today, the same area has so many tall building that the Met Life tower is obscured in images taken from the same angle.
The Chauncey breaker, 1911 in Plymouth, Pennsylvania, complete with steam pouring from its furnace.
Alexey Zakharov separated moving from static elements after uploading the images into Photoshop. He then added animation to make bring the images to life. Pictured is the Chauncey breaker, 1911 in Plymouth, Pennsylvania
Alexey Zakharov describes how there are two main stages to creating animation from photos. The first involves something known as 'camera projection.' 'A picture, cut into layers is projected on the geometry created by 3D software,' he explains. 'I use this geometry to set city backgrounds, buildings and other static elements. This January 14, 1939 image shown the Capitol building in Washington
The incredible short film, titled 'The Old New World', was a labour of love for the 36-year-old, who spent more than a year on the project. Pictured is Doyers Street in New York's Chinatown in 1901
This image shows a drug store on 7th street in Washington DC in 1921. 'I came up with the idea for a full retro-photoanimation project appeared after visiting the Shorpy site,' Zakharov told DailyMail.com. 'This is astonishing place with tons of reconstructed hi-resolution photos. I spent many hours there'
The left image shows Court Street featuring the Ames Building and Young's Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts. On the right is Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyards, Baltimore. The visual artist used these images to create his incredibly realistic 4-minute animation
The biggest challenge for Zakharov was grappling with the technical elements of creating computer graphics.
'Photoshop is a lot of work when you need to cut a photo into layers and clean it up. It is not so difficult as long,' he said.
'Animation was the most difficult task for me, because I'm not true animator like the Pixar guys.
'The hardest thing for me is to find a free time for the project. Time is the most valuable resource.
Zakharov says he is taking a break from photo animation for now, but plans to do similar projects in the future.
'As I expected in the professional computer graphic (CG) community reaction was quite calm,' he said.
'For the professional CG-artist it is not very interesting. I did not expect that many people who are very far from CG liked the project.'
'It means that I was able to recreate true spirit of the old times, and it's totally worth it.'
Pictured on the left is an 1905 image of St Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue in New York and on the right is an image of the Queensboro Bridge, otherwise known the 59th Street Bridge in New York, as it was in 1909
Pictured is Wilmerding, Pennsylvania, around 1905. 'I did not expect that many people who are very far from CG liked the project,' said Zakharov. 'It means that I was able to recreate true spirit of the old times, and it's totally worth it'
Pictured on the left is the interior of the Weller's drug store on eighth street in Washington and on the right is a view from Central Park in New York in 1933
The scene shows the Morgan & Wright Detroit Rubber Works in Detroit pictured as it was in 1908. 'I came up with the idea for a full retro-photoanimation project appeared after visiting the Shorpy site,' Zakharov told DailyMail.com
An artist has created incredibly realistic animations of America in the early 1900s based almost entirely on vintage photos. Pictured is one of the images used in the project showing New York's Singer Building looking down Broadway
Pictured is the York Theater on 3640 Georgia Avenue, Washington, DC in 1920. Alexey Zakharov says he is taking a break from photo animation for now, but plans to do similar projects in the future
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