![“In the spring of ‘82, armed with a trusty 5x7 camera, a tripod and an assistant, [Jon] Ericson set out to record the structures and spaces [of the piers] objectively, letting whatever ghosts appear be in the eye of the beholder. ‘I’d done some shooting before, not exactly to record architecture, but of parts of buildings. The way things deteriorate and decay interestes me, particularly in this sort of place, where people put their mark on it too.’
Some of the shots have an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ sense of mystery, with doorless frames seeming to stretch on forever. Others look like a Fellini film on ancient Roman catacombs; the graffiti has that same weathered and timeless look. Still others look like the aftermath of a fiery climax to a Vincent Price/ Edgar Allan Poe movie. The people present seem to blend, chamelon-like, into the suroundings. An inevitable few are brazen and demanding, but while most photographers would have concentrated on them, or on huddled and groping groups in corners or on lascivious couplings on the roof, he has given us a gentle, yet revealing , glimpse into the heart of the building itself.”
“He moved to NY in the summer of ‘79 and a friend brought him to the piers in the fall. He didn’t go again until the following spring, and then again this past April. The closed pier had changed dramatically; there’d been a fire, and charred cinders were everywhere. Parts of the roof and walls had caved in. He realized he wanted to document this area of New York before it disappeared.
‘I was somewhat personally involved with the phenomenon simply by having known about it and going there on occasion. Even though the photographs document a place at a certain point in its deterioration in a pretty objective manner, somewhow you can’t extricate the people completely from the phenomenon. Over the passge of time, they went in ther for the purpose of crusing, or to have an adventure in a non-commercial atmosphere, and they left these marks on teh wall swith the elements. So in a subtle way these pictures have to do with sexual/social aspects as well.’ “
“Had he been assigned the series specifically as an ‘homage’ he would have approcahed it somewhat differently. He woudl have included many more men—not only involved in sex, bu twalking, watching, talking and relaxing. ‘In many ways, it was a park. You were in the city but you could go there and be on the water, and see the Empire State Buliding and the World Trade Center. A lot of us live in cramped, tight apartments—so the appeal of the pier was much more than sexual.’ “
ALL WORK BY JON ERICSON, TAKEN FROM “PORTFOLIO: HOMAGE TO A PIER”, TORSO MAGAZINE, FEBRUARY 1983; TEXT BY GERRY GEDDES, FROM THE SAME ISSUE](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l0bn80U9I01qz93lzo1_500.jpg)
“In the spring of ‘82, armed with a trusty 5x7 camera, a tripod and an assistant, [Jon] Ericson set out to record the structures and spaces [of the piers] objectively, letting whatever ghosts appear be in the eye of the beholder. ‘I’d done some shooting before, not exactly to record architecture, but of parts of buildings. The way things deteriorate and decay interestes me, particularly in this sort of place, where people put their mark on it too.’
Some of the shots have an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ sense of mystery, with doorless frames seeming to stretch on forever. Others look like a Fellini film on ancient Roman catacombs; the graffiti has that same weathered and timeless look. Still others look like the aftermath of a fiery climax to a Vincent Price/ Edgar Allan Poe movie. The people present seem to blend, chamelon-like, into the suroundings. An inevitable few are brazen and demanding, but while most photographers would have concentrated on them, or on huddled and groping groups in corners or on lascivious couplings on the roof, he has given us a gentle, yet revealing , glimpse into the heart of the building itself.”
“He moved to NY in the summer of ‘79 and a friend brought him to the piers in the fall. He didn’t go again until the following spring, and then again this past April. The closed pier had changed dramatically; there’d been a fire, and charred cinders were everywhere. Parts of the roof and walls had caved in. He realized he wanted to document this area of New York before it disappeared.
‘I was somewhat personally involved with the phenomenon simply by having known about it and going there on occasion. Even though the photographs document a place at a certain point in its deterioration in a pretty objective manner, somewhow you can’t extricate the people completely from the phenomenon. Over the passge of time, they went in ther for the purpose of crusing, or to have an adventure in a non-commercial atmosphere, and they left these marks on teh wall swith the elements. So in a subtle way these pictures have to do with sexual/social aspects as well.’ “
“Had he been assigned the series specifically as an ‘homage’ he would have approcahed it somewhat differently. He woudl have included many more men—not only involved in sex, bu twalking, watching, talking and relaxing. ‘In many ways, it was a park. You were in the city but you could go there and be on the water, and see the Empire State Buliding and the World Trade Center. A lot of us live in cramped, tight apartments—so the appeal of the pier was much more than sexual.’ “
ALL WORK BY JON ERICSON, TAKEN FROM “PORTFOLIO: HOMAGE TO A PIER”, TORSO MAGAZINE, FEBRUARY 1983; TEXT BY GERRY GEDDES, FROM THE SAME ISSUE
