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Four years ago, Marvin Trachtenberg invited me to take a tour of the building where he had taught architectural history of the Italian Renaissance for more than 50 years. The Institute of Fine Arts of NYU is housed in the James B. Duke mansion at 5th Avenue and 78th Street. As we ascended the grand staircase, Marvin explained how various spaces had been converted from living room into library, from dining room into conference hall – on and on. We traveled through three stories where hallways, closets, and Doris Duke’s former dressing room were all lined floor-to-ceiling with bookcases.

We finally settled into well-worn leather chairs in Marvin’s office, embraced by more jammed bookcases and the atmosphere of a life steeped in art history. After probing Marvin about his years at the Institute, and the many books he had written, our conversation landed on his passion for taking photographs. He shared a portfolio of photos he’d taken years ago of a random bunch of pop icons such as the Statue of Liberty and the comic adventurer Tintin - tiny toys and campy souvenirs found abandoned in his attic in Bellport. I was very surprised and emotionally moved when I saw them. I was immediately attracted by the charm of the objects, and the effects of their intense magnification in the photographs, how they revealed the effects of time and use: dust, scratches, smudges, and other minute visual artifacts.

Marvin went on to explain that he had used a macro lens on his view camera (a Linhof Master Technika) to produce giant 4x5 inch negatives, which allowed him to record a vast amount of visual information. “In size and cultural value,” Trachtenberg observed, “they’re the opposite of the Gothic and Renaissance cathedrals in Florence and elsewhere that I’ve spent sixty years photographing as an art historian. The images that resulted capture strange textures of the ‘human’ face and physiognomy, expressions seemingly inherent in the material itself. What I seem to have encountered, or produced, is a demonstration of the uncanny power of ‘straight’ black-and-white, non-digital photography when pushed to extreme conditions of framing, focus, lighting, magnification, depth of field, and other parameters intrinsic to the photographic process.”

We look forward to sharing this impressive body of work created by one of our distinguished residents.

Mark Van Wagner

Owner/Director