Third Avenue Elevated Train, New York City, ca. 1951

In the early 1950s, Esther Bubley turned to a 35-millimeter color slide film to study the Third Avenue elevated train, Manhattan's last El, which was torn down in 1955. In this colorful photograph, Bubley captures people waiting on the platform for the train to arrive, a telling moment in everyday life. This print is a perfect example of Esther Bubley's ability to capture telling moments of our everyday lives. This c-print is printed on Kodak Supra. It is estate stamped, numbered, and sold in an archival paper folder.

Digital C-Print
Image Size: 8 1/4 x 12 inches
Paper Size: 11 x 14 inches
Edition of 50
Numbered by artist

Esther Bubley (b. 1921, Phillips, Wisconsin, 1921; d. 1998, New York City) was one of America’s leading photojournalists. Bubley’s mentor was Roy Stryker, for whom she worked at the Office of War Information in Washington, D.C., and at Standard Oil in New York City. Under Stryker, Bubley learned to document the spectacle of modern industry and the lives of ordinary people in a fast-changing world. She freelanced for various national magazines in the early 1940s and into the late 1960s. Bubley produced forty photo essays for Life, a dozen more for the Ladies’ Home Journal‘s famous series, “How America Lives,” and numerous projects for non-profit organizations and major corporations alike. When career options for women were limited, Bubley rose to the top of an overwhelmingly male-dominated field.