Betsy Karel: America's Stage: Times Square

Description

In America's Stage: Times Square, street photographer Betsy Karel uses five New York City blocks as a metaphor for urban America today. Her premise is that many of the major trends of our society are present in Times Square: globalism, consumerism, ubiquitous sexualization, hucksterism, surveillance, narcissism. All are compressed and amplified here. In Karel's photos fantasy parades as reality, corporate interests invade almost all public spaces, and Times Square becomes a vivid, almost hyper-realistic, form of theatre. Betsy Karel is a native New Yorker who haunted Times Square to find what most of the city's dwellers seek to avoid: the tourists and everything that exists for them in that historic mecca. She records the intermingling of those responsible for the cacophony, those reacting and those who appear oblivious. She recognized the sadness that co-exists with outrageous exhibitionism, the excessive signs competing for attention with 24/7 congestion, workers, beggars, and lovers. Quick glances will miss much of the value and pleasures to be found in these images that are masterfully complex, layered, and astute. Anne Wilkes Tucker

Betsy Karel was born in New York City in 1946 and today lives in Washington D.C. Karel worked as an award-winning photojournalist in the 1970s. In 1998, after a hiatus of nearly 20 years working as a professional photographer, she participated in "The Way Home," a national exhibition on homelessness in America. Her photographs are in the permanent collections of The National Gallery of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Yale University Art Gallery. Steidl has published Karel's Bombay Jadoo (2007), which was shortlisted for the 2008 Deutscher Fotobuchpreis.

...tourists, hawkers, masquerading characters, lovers of free speech, brides and grooms are pictured in black and white streaming and weaving through the busy streets... the strangeness of human nature is concentrated and magnified through the lens of Karel's camera.--Sarah Sunday "Musee" Betsy Karel Began To Photograph Times Square In 2014 And Has Over The Last Several Years Amassed A Portfolio Of Black And White Photographs Exploring The Chaotic Five Blocks That Make Up One Of The Most Interesting And Unique Parts Of The World.--Jim Fitts "Photoweenie" Karel brings us America's Stage: Times Square, a new photobook from Steidl that explores the exhilarating and exhausting corner of the city that we call Times Square.-- "Eye of Photography" Karel's collection of more than 70 black-and- white images document the essence of the City that Never Sleeps.--Paul Hagen "MetroSource" Masked musicians, military tanks and Batman all play parts in the daily theatre captured by Betsy Karel of New York City's famous intersection - loved by tourists, shunned by locals.-- "Guardian" Photographer Betsy Karel takes a insightful look at this crush of humanity.--Aline Smithson "Lenscratch"