Rail Yards Talks: What the High Line Meant and Means To Me, by Joel Stenfeld September 21, 2011

***HIGH LINE PROGRAMS***
RAIL YARDS TALKS: JOEL STERNFELD
***
Original High Line Photographer Shares His Thoughts on Wandering the
Railway Before It Was a Park

Photographer Joel Sternfeld, who captured iconic images of the High Line that helped catapult the project forward, will discuss his experience photographing the High Line when it was still overgrown with wildflowers and grasses that set root when the trains stopped running in a public talk entitled What the High Line Meant and Means To Me on Wednesday, September 21 beginning at 7 p.m. on the High Line in the 14th Street Passage.

In 2000, Friends of the High Line asked Sternfeld to photograph the wild landscape that had grown up on the High Line during its years of disuse. Taken before it was was transformed into a public park, Stenfeld’s photography brought the public in contact with this self-seeded landscape for the first time, and helped inspire the movement to save the High Line from demolition.

In this talk and slideshow, Sternfeld will take the audience on a visual tour of the High Line, discussing the significance of each image and how his understanding of the historic structure has changed since it was transformed into a public park. A short Q&A will follow the presentation.

This is the first of three talks about the High Line at the Rail Yards. Photographer Rick Darke will speak on Tuesday, September 27, and Friends of the High Line Co-Founder Robert Hammond will speak on Wednesday, October 5.

This High Line Program is free and open to visitors of all ages. No RSVP required. Seating is available on a first-come, first served basis.

WHAT: What the High Line Meant and Means To Me, by Joel Sternfeld

WHERE: 14th Street Passage
On the High Line near West 14th Street
WHEN: Wednesday, September 21
7 PM