{
"data": {
"id": 154803,
"accession_number": "1989.386",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "New York, the Elevated, and Me, 1936. Ilse Bing (American, 1899\u20131998). Gelatin silver print; image: 18.8 x 28.2 cm (7 3/8 x 11 1/8 in.); matted: 40.6 x 50.8 cm (16 x 20 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1989.386. \u00a9 Estate of Ilse Bing",
"current_location": null,
"title": "New York, the Elevated, and Me",
"creation_date": "1936",
"creation_date_earliest": 1936,
"creation_date_latest": 1936,
"artists_tags": [
"Jewish artists",
"female"
],
"culture": [
"America"
],
"technique": "gelatin silver print",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Photography",
"collection": "PH - American 1900-1950",
"type": "Photograph",
"measurements": "Image: 18.8 x 28.2 cm (7 3/8 x 11 1/8 in.); Matted: 40.6 x 50.8 cm (16 x 20 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"image": {
"height": 0.188,
"height_inch": 7,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.375,
"width": 0.282,
"width_inch": 11,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.125
},
"matted": {
"height": 0.406,
"height_inch": 16,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"width": 0.508,
"width_inch": 20,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": "\u00a9 Estate of Ilse Bing",
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Written in white ink on recto: \"ILSE BING [signed]/1936\"; in pencil on verso: \"ILSE BING [signed]/1936\"; \"New York - The Elevated and Me\"",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 310333,
"title": "The Year in Review for 1989",
"description": "The Year in Review for 1989. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 6-April 15, 1990).",
"opening_date": "1990-02-06T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 189766,
"title": "Industry and Photography: Selections from the Permanent Collection",
"description": "Industry and Photography: Selections from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1997-March 1, 1998).",
"opening_date": "1997-11-16T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 194095,
"title": "Icons of American Photography: A Century of Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Icons of American Photography: A Century of Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 24-September 16, 2007).",
"opening_date": "2007-06-24T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 370361,
"title": "Ilse Bing: Queen of the Leica",
"description": "Ilse Bing: Queen of the Leica. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 6-October 11, 2020).",
"opening_date": "2020-03-06T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "CMA, Feb. 6 - April 15, 1990: \"Year in Review 1989,\" CMA Bulletin, 77 (Feb. 1990), p. 67, no. 24.",
"opening_date": "1990-02-06T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; 11/16/97 - 3/1/98. \"Industry and Photography: Selections from the Permanent Collection.\"",
"opening_date": "1997-11-16T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art (6/24/07 - 9/16/07); \"Icons of American Photography: A Century of Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art\", no exhibition catalogue.",
"opening_date": "2007-06-24T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "In 1936 one of Ilse Bing\u2019s patrons arranged for her to spend almost two months in New York City. In this daytime view of Manhattan\u2019s skyscrapers shot from an elevated train platform, a self-portrait is hidden in the glass cover of the coin-operated scale. Bing also photographed the skyline by night, declaring the city\u2019s lighting \u201cphosphorescent.\u201d The scale of the metropolis made her feel, she recalled, like \u201can atom wandering in the universe.\u201d Bing and her work were enthusiastically received there. She had a solo exhibition of her photographs and met with magazine editors at Fortune, Time, and Life, which was then still in the conceptual stages. Despite possible employment, she returned to Paris to be with her fianc\u00e9, pianist and musicologist Konrad Wolff.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79942402"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: P. 97",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "\"In Perspective: Leica queen.\" Art & Antiques 43, no. 3 (March 2020): 30.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 30; Mention: p. 30",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Tannenbaum, Barbara. \u201cQueen of the Leica: Ilse Bing found freedom of expression in a small, lightweight camera.\u201d Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 60, no. 2 (March/April 2020): 30-31.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: P. 31; Mentioned: P. 30.",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1989.386",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "John L. Severance Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 154803,
"creators": [
{
"id": 235,
"description": "Ilse Bing (American, 1899\u20131998)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "Ilse Bing (American, b. Germany, 1899-1998). Ilse Bing became interested in photography while pursuing a doctoral degree in art history at Frankfurt University. Around 1927-28 she began taking photographs to illustrate her dissertation and in 1930 decided to move to Paris to look for freelance assignments. Using the new 35mm Leica camera, she worked as a fashion, portrait, and architectural photographer, as well as a photojournalist. During her years in Paris she took part in numerous exhibitions, including the Museum of Modern Art's Photography 1839-1937 show in New York. In 1941 Bing and her husband immigrated to the United States, settling in New York City. In New York she began to work on a different scale, using the larger-format Rolleiflex camera as well as electronic flash. By 1957 she was working exclusively in color. Two years later Bing gave up photography to concentrate on painting and poetry.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1899",
"death_year": "1998",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1990-01-29T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1936,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1936",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-01 06:51:31.150000"
}
}