Offbeat crowd shots from New York’s biggest gigs
- Text by Miss Rosen
- Photography by Jeff Mermelstein / Arena / TBW Books
The Barclay’s Centre in Brooklyn has become a symbol of New York in the new millennium. Sitting smack dab at the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues, the colossal arena opened in 2012 with a Jay-Z concert heralding the age of gentrification.
For photographer Jeff Mermelstein, it landed on his front doorstep. A year after he and his wife bought their first home on the corner of Sixth Avenue and Pacific Street along the Atlantic Yards, they learned of plans for the Barclay’s.
“It was a beautiful brick and timber loft, with our son coming not long afterwards,” he remembers. “Living there was a beautiful thing, just right for us at the time – and then we needed to give up our home.”
Through the newspapers, Mermelstein became aware of Bruce Ratner, a real estate developer and owner of the Brooklyn Nets. Ratner was transforming the Atlantic Yards into Pacific Park Brooklyn: a $3.5 billion sports arena (the Barclay’s Centre), and a business and residential complex.
“One day I was looking out the window of our loft and saw him walking around the land in that immediate area,” Mermelstein says. “I ran out of the loft and up to him, deeply upset because I was just learning about the process of eminent domain and all of the ramifications and anxieties it can inflict. It started very gruff, but it evolved over 18 years into a friendship.”
From this unlikely encounter, a profound connection came forth – one that brought Mermelstein inside the Barclay’s over and over again in a series of photographs collected for Arena (TBW Books).
Beginning with opening night, and continuing over a period of four years, Mermelstein went to about 365 different events. This included gigs from Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, and the Rolling Stones, as well as basketball, hockey, pro wrestling, graduations, and community fundraisers.
Though he was allowed to photograph inside the pit, Mermelstein’s penchant for pedestrian energy brought him into the corridors. Even indoors, a street photographer must walk, and so he went round and round the bowl capturing the curious, quirky, and unlikely moments that occur when you gather 19,000 people together in celebration of something they love and adore.
“When you go into the arena to see Bob Dylan and be a Dylan head, you’re going to be in a certain state of mind, of excitement maybe almost wonderment,” he says.
“People dressed in a certain way; [there’s a] Barbra Streisand aesthetic, a Stevie Wonder aesthetic, a Jay-Z aesthetic and a Barry Manilow aesthetic. Billy Joel has a character type, and pro wrestling was easy to identify.”
Whether heading to private suites or nosebleed seats, everyone must walk the corridors, and in that way they are much like the streets, making everyone level for just a moment. Yet one thing is different that subtly informs the intensity of his photographs: “it’s all closed in – there is no escape route.”
Arena is available on TBW Books.
Follow Miss Rosen on Twitter.
Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
You might like
Surveying community and resistance in LGBTQ+ nightlife
Sex, Clubs Dissent — A new book collates queer nightlife photography over the past 50 years, and the people who found refuge and safe spaces after dark.
Written by: Miss Rosen
In photos: Electric nights in ’70s Japan
Tokyo–Koza — Keizō Kitajima’s new photobook explores the explosion of party culture of Tokyo and Okinawa during an era of rapid change in the country, as well as its stranger turns.
Written by: Miss Rosen
“Magazines are cultural artefacts”: magCulture’s Jeremy Leslie on the enduring importance of print
We love magazines — Despite the ever creeping digitalisation of the world and culture, physical objects are taking on different, yet vital, roles in culture today. Ella Glossop chats to one of London’s biggest proponents of the art about why we need to support independent publications.
Written by: Ella Glossop
The anti-tourism guides revealing Lisbon’s true, radical heart
We Hate Tourism Tours — The Portuguese capital sees millions of people visit a year, against a backdrop of political turbulence and a housing crisis fuelled by short term holiday lets. Jack Burke meets the crew subverting their city’s perception, while bringing lesser seen stories and monuments to light.
Written by: Jack Burke
Defiance and pride in Chicano Camera Culture
A Photographic History — A new major exhibition surveys Mexican American photography over six decades, platforming Chicano artists at a Chicano museum for the first time.
Written by: Miss Rosen
The art of paying attention: How Austria’s Alps reward slowing down
Lebensgefühl — With a growing movement of art and music rooted in the area’s mountains, trees and waterfalls, the region is showcasing the importance of the human relationship to nature.
Written by: Sophie Lou Wilson
