Legacy: the Preservation of Wilderness in New York City Parks November 5, 2009

Join master photographer Joel Meyerowitz and author Phillip Lopate for a talk and book signing on the occasion of the publication of Legacy: The Preservation of Wilderness in New York City Parks (Aperture, October 2009). This compelling body of work is the result of a unique commission Meyerowitz received from the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation to document, interpret, and celebrate one of the city's greatest legacies: nearly nine thousand acres of parks in the five boroughs. To accompany these magnificent images, Lopate contributed an essay that expands on his notion of the urban walk-poem. (Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg contributed the book's forword.) Meyerowitz is the first photographer to document New York City's parks since the 1930s, when they were photographed as part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's WPA program. An exhibition of this series will open on October 9, 2009 at the Museum of the City of New York.