Rebuilding

As the son of an Italian father and an American mother, Martino Marangoni sailed to New York for the first time in the summer of 1959, to visit his American grandparents. He was nine years old, brought his first camera, a Kodak Brownie, and photographed the impressive skyscrapers.

From 1972 to 1975 he studied photography at the Pratt Institute and became acquainted with the work of Robert Frank and Lee Friedlander, among others. It is there where he developed his subjects of interest and his photographic style.

His fascination with New York and his ties with friends and family brought him to the city almost every year: not only he was there when the Twin Towers were being built, but he was present when they were destroyed in 2001. Since that day he has returned to visit Ground Zero regularly, documenting the rebuilding of the area and the changing neighborhood.

Rebuilding — My Days in New York is a collection of images from Marangoni’s 60-year archive. Taken primarily in lower Manhattan, and supplemented here with anecdotes, the photographs are an extraordinary testimony to this rapidly changing city and its street life.

With an epilogue by W.M. Hunt.