Jump, South 1st Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

1995

Growing up on the urban terrain of concrete sidewalks, Brooklyn children and teenagers have long embraced skating as a pastime. In 1950 N. Jay Jaffee photographed a young skater as she extended her arm out to gain balance independent of her father’s hold. Vincent Cianni’s 1995 image captures a graceful moment of a teenage boy midair.

The backgrounds of these images reveal changing textures of the neighborhood landscapes: felt hats with fur trim and arched glass storefront windows in the former, and baggy T-shirts and graffiti scrawled along a block in the latter. Although taken forty-five years apart, these photographs display skating as a communal and enjoyed act for Brooklyn youth.