Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb: Brooklyn, The City Within

Brooklyn is one of the most dynamic and ethnically diverse places on the planet. In fact, it’s estimated that one in every eight US families had relatives come through Brooklyn when settling in the country. Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb have been photographing this New York City borough for the past seven years, creating a profound and vibrant portrait. Alex Webb has traversed every corner of the borough, exploring its tremendous diversity. This parallels his work made in the past forty years, traveling to photograph different cultures around the world—all of which are represented in the place he now calls home. Contrasting with this approach, Rebecca Norris Webb photographed “the city within the city within the city,” the green heart of Brooklyn—the Botanic Garden, GreenWood Cemetery, and Prospect Park, where Brooklynites of all walks of life cross paths as they find solace. Together, their photographs of Brooklyn tell a larger American story, one that touches on immigration, identity, and home.

Alex Webb (born in San Francisco, 1952) has published more than a dozen books, including Violet Isle: A Duet of Photographs from Cuba (2009, with Rebecca Norris Webb), and the Aperture titles Istanbul (2007), The Suffering of Light (2011), and La Calle (2016). Webb became a full member of Magnum Photos in 1979. His work has been shown widely and he has received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2007 and the Leica Medal of Excellence in 2000.

Rebecca Norris Webb (born in Rushville, Indiana, 1956), originally a poet, has published three photography books that explore the complicated relationship between people and the natural world: The Glass Between Us (2006), Violet Isle: A Duet of Photographs from Cuba (2009, with Alex Webb), and My Dakota (2012). Her work has been exhibited extensively and has appeared in the New Yorker, Time, National Geographic, and Le Monde magazine.

Sean Corcoran is curator of prints and photographs at the Museum of the City of New York and has written extensively on photography, including essays for Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao: New York (Aperture, 2014), and Elliott Erwitt: At Home and Around the World (Aperture, 2016).