Marc Yankus’s dreamlike portraits of New York City buildings straddle a fine line between documentary and fiction. In The Secret Lives of Buildings he captures the city’s architecture in an uncanny moment of stillness, free from the frenzy of people and cars. The sense of quietude lends elegance to the structures, both majestic and humble. Yankus inspires viewers to see historical buildings with a fresh perspective, offering an idealized and even utopian version of the past, while other buildings are viewed through a lens of potential. Yet in other scenes, the decay of crumbling concrete, chipped-away paint, and remnants of deconstruction paradoxically inspire a sense of agreeable nostalgia.
Marc Yankus | Buildings: The Secret Lives of Buildings
Marc Yankus, “Flatiron Building”
The Ansonia
The Emmet Building
The Empire
Nineteenth Street
Alwyn Court
New City
Chelsea Blues
Dorilton Apartments
West Seventy-Second
The Van Dyke Building
Bank on Eighth
Island Building
H. H. Vail House
Miner Mansion
Pale Yellow and Blue
Riverside Drive
Marc Yankus, “Haughwout Building”
Bank by Sheridan Square
Meat and Palm
Barber Shop
Casa Oliviera
Seventh and Bedford
Marc Yankus, “Three Buildings on West Tenth Street”
Four Buildings
Three Buildings on Greenwich Street
Hidden
Commerce Street
Tinsmith
Charles Street West of Hudson
Eleventh Street East of Seventh
Red House on Eleventh Street
190 Riverside Drive
Bushwick Cafe
South Village Fence
Near My Old Studio
Playground