Fred Stein

Here is another set of Mr. Stein's photos of New York City.

Source: Monovisions

Fred Stein

Fred Stein was born on July 3, 1909 in Dresden, Germany. As a teenager he was deeply interested in politics and became an early anti-Nazi activist. He was a brilliant student, and went to Leipzig University, full of humanist ideals, to study law. He obtained a law degree in an impressively short time, but was denied admission to the German bar by the Nazi government for “racial and political reasons.” The threat of Fascism grew more and more dangerous and after the SS began making inquiries about him, Stein fled to Paris in 1933 with his new wife, Liselotte Salzburg, under the pretext of taking a honeymoon.

New York was a vibrant center of culture, and Stein seized the opportunity. He met and photographed writers, artists, scientists, politicians, and philosophers whose work he knew through his extensive reading and study. This enabled him to engage them in conversation during portrait sessions. He continued his fascination with humanity, walking through the streets of New York, documenting life from Fifth Avenue to Harlem. He worked unobtrusively and quickly, valuing the freedom to capture the telling moment that reveals the subject in its own light, not as incidental material for photographic interpretation.

Source: Monovisions

New York, New York

 Boy and girl dancing while an Edison Home phonograph plays 

in a home in Broad Channel, Queens, New York City, 1910-15

  

 Gladys Lamb and Norval Baptie performing "an exhibition of fancy and acrobatic skating" during an "ice carnival" at Van Cortlandt Park, the Bronx, New York City, February 17, 1917

  

 Grand Central Station and Hotel Manhattan, New York, 1900-06

  

 May Day Parade, New York City, ca. 1910

  

Plane piloted by Blair Thaw with passenger John Kane 

in Central Park, New York City, March 6, 1916

Playgrounds

These photos from G. G. Bain are all labeled "N.Y. Playground, 1910-1915."

Vintage New York

Clam seller in Mulberry Bend, NY, ca. 1900

  

Herald Square, New York, NY, 1900-15

  

 Macy's, New York, NY, ca. 1908

  

 

 Manhattan entrance to Brooklyn Bridge, New York, ca. 1905

 

 On the streets in a New York blizzard, 1899

New York City

 A Fifth Avenue stage, New York, 1900-06

  

A hansom at Madison Square, New York, ca. 1900

  

 A Municipal ferry, New York, NY, 1905-20

  

 Banana docks, New York, ca. 1906

  

Central Park, the tennis courts, New York, 1900-10

Marjory Collins

 New York, New York. Italian-American children buying stamps and bonds at Public School eight on King Street from mothers who volunteer to guard doorways and. December 1942

  

 New York, New York. Merchant seamen's Christmas party at the Andrew Feruseth Club on Christmas Day. Dancing with hostesses. December 1942

  

 New York, New York. Orchestra in a Turkish nightclub on Allen Street. 

The girl plays a tambourine between dances. December 1942

  

 New York, New York. R. H. Macy and Company department store 

during the week before Christmas. December 1942

  

 New York, New York. Shoeshine parlor on East Forty-Second Street. Customers in the foreground are waiting while their shoes are repaired. September 1942

  

New York. New York. Class in citizenship and English for Italians given free of charge at the Hudson Park library on Seventh Avenue near Bleeker Street. January 1943

New York City

 12th N.Y. at 59th Street, probably 1917-18

  

 D.H. Woolf and wife arriving in New York City, August 15, 1910

  

 Food Protest Meeting, East Broadway and Rutgers Street, 

New York City, February 20, 1917

  

 Getting on Broadway car, 1910-15

  

Horse drawn fire vehicle at intersection of West 43rd Street 

and Broadway, New York City, 1910-15

New York City snowstorms

Edwin Levick: Winter storm, 1912

    

Winter storm, Times Square, 1935

  

Winter storm, 1936

  

Al Fenn: Winter storm, 1947

  

Art Whittaker: Winter storm, 1947