Jennifer Kotter examines the details of downtown architecture in photography show
Office of Manhattan Borough President’s Gallery
Municipal Building
One Centre St., nineteenth floor
Monday – Friday through February 26, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Admission: free (photo ID required)
212-669-2728
www.2starthere.com
Born in Santa Monica and based in TriBeCa for many years, Jennifer Kotter is a preeminent city photographer, having captured the little nooks and crannies of the enormous metropolis for decades. Since 2002, she has been compiling “Details Below 14th Street,” a series of black-and-white architectural photos of pre-WWII buildings. She was inspired to do so after 9/11, which saw so much destruction and devastation, choosing to combine architecture and memory in unique ways. Her pictures delve deep into the corners, discovering abstract geometric shapes and patterns, with eerie shadows falling across pillars, balconies, doorways, and other architectural elements, like scenes from a film noir in which a private eye smoking a cigarette would be hovering just out of frame. A former photojournalist for the Village Voice whose “MTA Jewels” can be found in the passageway to the Sixth Ave. L, Kotter is currently displaying more than two dozen photographs from the “Details” series, in three different sizes, in the hallway gallery of the office of the Manhattan borough president, in the landmarked Municipal Building, a serendipitous location for her to show her timeless architectural studies.