The streets of New York City hide legendary moments of rock ‘n’ roll you never knew they were there, until Steve Birnbaum returns them to life.
The Great Photographer and filmmaker based on Apple is the brain behind @TheBandwasere: A viral project that resurrects the iconic album covers where they were shot decades ago.
Birnbaum tracks where famous band photos exploded, and then goes back to these exact places to re -create the shots: album covers, promotional photos, name.
His feed is a roll of rock legends in New York such as The Strokes, Talking Heads, Blondie, Ramones, Bob Dylan and Simon and Garfunkel, they all returned to life where the magic originally passed.
Think that Bob Dylan strolling along the same cold sidewalk by Greenwich Village in 1963, or the Ramones that stand out of the 1976 Village East wall, all perfectly framed as today.
But his collection does not stop here. He also has iconic images of The Notentious Big, Bruce Springsteen, The Doors, Cyndi Lauper, Madonna, Taylor Swift and more.
What excites Birnbaum most is to reconnect New York with the invisible soundtrack of their daily life.
“It’s crazy that you go through the streets and go through things … So many of us walk where Stevie Nicks turned or where Debbie Harry was once … and we don’t even realize it.”
The hustle and bustle of Birnbaum nostalgia is used in our obsession with “then and now” culture and that classic New York pride to cling to the past, especially the golden times of music that helped define the identity of the city.
His feed, which features Chris Stein, Blondie, Billy Corgan and Sza de Blondie, is a living museum in the history of rock ‘n’ roll, showing that while the skyscrapers sprout and the Morph neighborhoods, the soul of New York music, even if you know where you know where to look.
But don’t be wrong for a quick blow. Birnbaum is called “a music historian” and makes his definitive priority honor and accredit the original photographer of each cover of the album.
It has been pursuing the exact locations of legendary photo sessions, gathering old interviews, concerts tour and band itineraries, and even looking for Google Maps for hours.
“I challenge myself and try to find photos that are difficult to take,” he said.
He even studies the angle of the original photographer and is often found crouching, contractor or lying on the floor to nail the shot.
Birnbaum’s trip began with personal memories (family albums and snapshots of his youth), but he quickly evolved into a complete passion project after the 11/11 seismic change.
“There was a cover of La Veu del Poble,” he recalls, “where an artist photographer held an image of the World Trade Center just after the attacks. This was artistically inspired me.”
What began as a quiet personal archive turned to a chronicle of pop culture and music history, all anchored on the same streets in New York.
To discover these places, Birnbaum is deeply immersed and sometimes a tiny detail can be the key.
“When I was looking for the original location for Simon & Garfunkel’s album, I realized that Paul Simon had something that looked like an egg -shaped container for the OGS Pantyhose of the 1980’s,” Birnbaum recalled. “But it turned out to be my biggest track to find where Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel stood in the photo.”
He said that walking through a UPPER EAST SIDE Park “triggered my memory.”
“It was kept on the part of a fence on 7 East 94th Street,” he said. “I was able to keep track of the location, which I never thought would still be.
But it is often a combination of intuition and persistence, as well as knowing and loving the big neighborhoods in New York. “Sometimes you have to be crazy about it,” he laughed. “New York has been hard.”
The rapid transformation of the city, from the lower side of the east to Chinatown to the new novelties, forms a bittersweet backdrop in his work. Each photo captures a frozen moment in time, but many of these moments fade as the buildings fade or repopulate.
“No matter how much I love New York, it has really changed a lot in the last five, ten years,” he said.
His photos, often taken with their iPhone or DSLR camera, serve as time machines, revealing the non -seen layers under the concrete and steel of the city.
For Birnbaum, this is the true joy of his work.
“I consider myself a music historian in terms of photographs,” he said, emphasizing that he is proud to preserve New York’s rich musical legacy: a photo, a street corner at the same time.
It is also a reminder that, no matter how much New York is changing, their soul never fades.
“I want people to look and say,” Hey, I’m standing where the legends of music were, “he said.” This connection, this story, is so important. “
5 New York locations for legendary albums
- LED ZEPPELIN: “Physical graffiti”, (1975), 96 St. Marks Place
- Bob Dylan: “The Freewheelin ‘Bob Dylan”, (1963), in the middle of Jones Street, 50 meters from West Quarther Street
- Ramons: “Rocket to Russia” (1977), Back Alley of the first street behind John Varvatos (formerly CBGB), 315 Bowry
- Neil Young: “After the Gold Rush” (1970), north corner -Sullivan Street and West Third Street
- Simon & Garfunkel: “Greatest Hits” (1972), 7 E. 94th St.
#Exclusive #NYC #full #iconic #rocknroll #moments #cover #Bob #Dylans #album #photographer #emphasizes #story
Image Source : nypost.com