Times Square at Night

Scrawled on the back of this photograph are the words, Times Square NY at night the way it looks after you have looked around a while at lights and signs. Multiple, overlaid images of glowing advertisements evoke the exhilaration with which electric illumination was greeted in the early twentieth century. With no indication of ground or scale, the lights overwhelm the senses, transforming the city into a phantasmagoric space akin to the world of movies and variety shows. This similarity is underscored in the unknown photographer’s fascination with the marquees of dance halls like the Chinese-American club Chin Lee and of Hollywood hits like Strange Interlude.