Between the World’s Fair of 1939-40 and the construction of the United Nations Building in 1949, New York reached a historic acme as a cosmopolitan center. During the years of World War II, a time of heightened patriotism, middle America embraced the polyglot masses of the city, who were conspicuously enlisted in the war effort. And in photographs, a pall seems to have lifted from once lonely streets; one can almost hear the crowds making collective noise. Coney Island and Times Square came into their own as iconic motifs, conceived as panoramas of almost national togetherness in a fevered atmosphere. Weegee, a freelance crime reporter for tabloids, turned the frenzy of New York nights into scenes that were by turns grotesque, erotic, and humorous. His photographic style assumes real familiarity with New Yorkers, as if he were a waiter at a Jewish delicatessen, slapping down a juicy pastrami on rye. Other photographers treated social themes in a more poetic spirit. Helen Levitt, with great lyricism, often pictured children at play, seeing them as miniature communities isolated within the metropolis. Members of the Photo League, such as Morris Huberland, Rebecca Lepkoff, and Arnold Eagle, aligned themselves in a humanist style that was remarkable for its spontaneity and warmth of feeling. By the late 1940s, professional outlets like PM’s Weekly, Harper’s Bazaar, and Magnum, patronage by the Museum of Modern Art, and the sustained activity of the Photo League provided a highly receptive environment for New York photographers. As political dissent faded—a victim of McCarthyite pressure—photographers such as Sid Grossman and Ted Croner created increasingly personal and subjective images of the city. The most lucid and mordant work in the new expressionist vein is Lisette Model’s. The introspective imagery and teaching of this Austrian émigré, who looked askance at bourgeois complacency, was to affect New York photography for the next twenty years. Lou Stoumen (1917–1991) Sitting in Front of the Strand, Times Square, 1940. Vintage gelatin-silver print, 8 3/4 x 6 7/8 in. (22.2 x 17.5 cm). © Barry Singer Gallery, Petaluma, California Ruth Orkin (1921–1985) Times Square, V-E Day, NYC, 1945 Gelatin-silver print, 16 x 20 in. (40.6 x 50.8 cm) © Ruth Orkin/Courtesy Estate of Ruth Orkin Rebecca Lepkoff (b. 1916) Henry Street, Manhattan, 1946-47 Vintage gelatin-silver print, 12 1/8 x 10 1/2 in. (30.8 x 26.7 cm) © Rebecca Lepkoff, courtesy Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York Morris Engel (b. 1918) Shoeshine Boy with Cop, 1947 Vintage gelatin-silver print, mounted on masonite, 13 x 10 in. (33.7 x 26 cm) The Jewish Museum, New York. Museum purchase, Photography Acquisitions Committee Fund, 2000-63 © Morris Engel