Orchard Street

1949 (printed 1990) Gelatin silver photograph, 16 x 20 inches. 1949 (printed 1990). Signed by Link in pencil on the verso, copyright stamped to verso. Image depicts street vendors with awnings drawn, lined up along empty Orchard Street in New York City's Lower East Side. A bright print, fine condition. Matted in white, in a sleek black wood frame. Ogle Winston Link was an American photographer, best known for his railroad photography and as a pioneer of nighttime photography. After receiving his degree in civil engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1937, Link began to work at Carl Byoir's public relations firm as a commercial photographer, and transitioned into photographing military machinery during World War II. Link photographed Orchard Street in 1946, shortly after opening his own New York City studio, which focused on public relations photography. The original photograph was printed and copyrighted in 1949, and this 1990 impression was printed from the same, original 1946 negative. Orchard Street was printed using the gelatin silver process, the most common method for making black and white photographs since the 1890s. The printing process, first introduced in 1871 by Richard Leach Maddox, involves creating an image of metallic silver embedded in a gelatin coating. Due to the sensitivity of the materials used to make them, gelatin silver prints are prone to toning and discoloration, increasing the rarity of fine quality prints.. Gelatin silver Photograph. Fine. 16 x 20 Inches.