Home Photo Gallery Classroom Documents The Chelsea Document Elizabeth McCausland May 1940 The "Chelsea Document," which has been exhibited at the Photo League, the Chelsea Tenants' League, the Hudson Guild and elsewhere, is an excellent demonstration of a field in which the Photo League may well be the pioneer. Photographs, text and presentation by visual and graphic means, are combined to make those five panels, an expressive witness against the chaos and brutality of housing in New York City to-day. Specifically the exhibition deals with the Third assembly district, that old Chelsea section which New Yorkers used to visit about a century ago, coming from the heart of Manhattan, (the present downtown financial district) to relax and rest in the country. Today Chelsea is by no means a suburban paradise. The figures say it is closer to an urban hell, it streets thronged with the city's trucking, the majority of its homes guiltless of plumbing and steam heat, its children robbed of sunlight, air and play space. The brief text has been used admirably to knit together the photographic material."We Live Here," the first panel proclaims, with a panorama of old law multiple dwellings in the shadow of London Terrace. The conditions are sub-human. of every 10 dwellings, 9 are over 40 years old; yet the average obsolescence of buildings in New York is closer to 20 years than 30,--that is, where the rentiers make profit by tearing down and building here. With private housing it is more profitable to keep the old insanity fire-traps in operation. Over a third of the families do not have baths, showers, Or private indoor toilets. Half the houses lack steam heat. Infant mortality is high; second highest in the city is the death rate from tuberculosis, "WHY" asks a third panel, "Why do we live this way? We don't have to--if we organize to fight for...." The answer is government housing, on the basis of specific needs--another health center, 50 acres of playgrounds, a 500-bed hospital, parks for mothers, low-rent apartments. These should rent at from 15 to 30 a month, be fireproof, have steam heat, private toilets, baths and showers, fresh air and sunlight. The government has already built model apartment houses in Williamsburg, Harlem, Red Hook, Queensbridge. Why not Chelsea next. This is a rousing plea for the people of Chelsea. In these five 4-by-8 foot panels, photographs, figures, words, symbols, arrows, guidelines, in black and in color, join to accuse the City of New York or its failure to its citizens. Designed and executed by Ad Reinhardt and Pat Decker, with photographs by Sid Grossman and Sol Libsohn of the Photo League, the panels represent how the various arts may collaborate to make a stronger case than any one could alone. For it is obvious that the camera cannot record the repetitive mass and distribution of social maladjustment; it can show social decay by individual instance. But if the beholder does not know how often this story is repeated, he loses something of the mass impact of the phenomenon. To see one filthy outdoor toilet? is shocking. But to show that every third family has to use such facilities is horrible beyond description. It is the PREVALENCE of these conditions which constitutes the final crime against the moral sense of mankind. The understanding of this aspect of reality can only be realized through the medium of language, which is suited by its nature to the description of abstract concepts of the kind on which all measurements are based. The exhibition suffers from handicaps which are understandable. The actual rendering of the panels could be more workmanlike. For example, if the wallboard had been painted a dead white before any visual material had been applied, the impact of the photographs, the lettering and the colored symbols would be more immediate and powerful. It is also always a little disturbing to see the photographs curling away from their supports and so forth. Of course, lack of financial support for such enterprises means that they must be carried out under great pressure, and sometimes the physical execution suffers as a result. The problem of presenting photographs graphically is a complex one. Generally in this case the written and painted material comes off better than the photographic. Whether this is due to the failure of the photographer to make the most of his subject matter or whether it means that the designer over emphasized his share of the collaboration is a question. Some of the photographs are excellent, thoroughly expressive in themselves. Others do not carry in their matrix. This may mean that in such graphic presentation larger photographs should be used. Speaking of craftsmanship, it is a little distracting to the eye to note the fact that the panorama of the first panel does not match up. Under existing conditions and with equipment available, it may be that shots of this nature have to be taken in more sections so that distortion is lessened and the subsequent putting together of several shots is facilitated. In one respect, the "Chelsea Document" scores notably. It shows (despite these minor criticisms) how various mediums can work together to make the true portable murals of our times, In these pictorials and written real stories of life today, the arts perform a service as great as any rendered by the more traditional expressions of the graphic and plastic arts. Here esthetic snobbery is vanquished, and art speaks not only to the people but, for the people.
|