In 1906, New York photographer A.B. Phelan created several photomontages of an oversized man looming over parts of New York City. He accomplished this feat by skillfully combining two photos into one wonderful ‘trick’ photo. Lucky for us, he submitted them for copyright registration and the montage photos made their way into the Library’s permanent collections. Here, the giant man peers down into the entrance of the subway station in front of New York’s City Hall.
Photomanipulation has been around about as long as photography itself. Both in the darkroom and out, photographers altered negatives and photos through multiple means for any number of reasons. Here we can assume Phelan sought to entertain with his artistry. The other photos we have by him are not yet digitized, but a sample of them is too good not to share through a quick snapshot. I was delighted to see that in the top photo, the man is attempting to mail the letter in his hand, but can’t quite manage to get into New York’s City Hall Post Office and Courthouse!
Learn More:
- New York’s City Hall features in hundreds of photographs without giant men reclining in front of it in the Prints & Photographs Division’s collections.
- See double in these stereographs of New York’s City Hall Post Office.
- When the New York World Building was constructed in 1890, it was the tallest building in New York City. Enjoy views from and of the home of the New York World newspaper.
Comments (5)
Just delightful! Thank you!
Just what I needed!
These are great, I’d like to use them in a lecture. Are all the photos from this set online?
Fun post with great photos.
In these days of GenAI, it’s good to be reminded it was the human imagination that “generated” the idea and its development. Thank you!