Yorkville's Sweeney Todd & Walker Evans Photographs

2nd Ave facing south near 84th St. 1953 Walker Evans

Thank you, Angela, curator of the terrific Italian Harlem blog for leading me to the Met's collection of Walker Evans photos online. Evans one of our greatest photographers lived at 441 East 92nd Street for many years. After the building was demolished in the early 1960s the property became part of the Issacs Houses/Holmes Towers public housing development.

Evans work is awe inspiring and his shots of Yorkville are countless.  The picture here: Second Avenue looking south near 84th Street in 1953.

The barber pole reminded me of Herman the German my strange haircut executioner when I was a kid.

Here is a link to my story about Herman published by Mr. Beller's Neighborhood.

"A Barber's Portrait of Kaiser Wilhelm."

Herman the German waited for his prey. He turned a small Iron Cross over in one hand slowly measuring the length of each of its four silver edges. His quivering lip shook an inch long ash off his cigarette’s end. It fell onto the top of his Austrian sandals with the matching black socks. A loose thread sizzled. He didn’t notice. It was 3 pm. It was time.

Hanging onto the sides of the store’s doorframe he leaned out towards the street. He twisted his smooth shaved face to his left and stretched his upper body back and forth, back and forth.

At three o’five, Michael, Steven and Gerard turned the corner, marching up the avenue towards the barber shop in prison formation using their cardboard school bags as sledge hammers. They slammed the sidewalk in time while whistling chain gang-style. Herman’s heart leaped. The Murphy boys were getting haircuts. The three boys, 12, 10 and 8 years old faced their sentence defiantly. They dragged their bags into the store and dropped their butts into the three barber chairs.  

read the rest of the story here