Over the door

by John Yang

"From 1989 through 1993, photographer John Yang undertook an intensive photographic study of the ornamental sandstone reliefs on New York City brownstones and tenements of the late 19th century. The result is Over the Door, a meticulously prepared and exquisitely produced volume of urban portraiture - Yang's photographs capture the various moods of the many sculptured personalities that stand watch over the doorways, spandrels, and arches of Manhattan. The photographs are also a study of the effects of time on these carvings, which are rapidly deteriorating from weathering as well as the happenstance of real estate development - demolition and renovation each take their toll on the carvings." "Yang's methodical study of these relief carvings - he covered every block of Manhattan, from the Lower East Side to Harlem, several times in his search for subjects - has yielded a valuable book for the sake of its subject alone; but like Atget, Walker Evans, and other great "documentary" photogr