Gallery: New York Harbor In The '70s Was A Nightmarish Wasteland

Image via Complex Original

During the '70s, the world let New York Harbor go to shit. One of the world's largest natural harbors became a rusted scrapheap, a baked wasteland, a nightmarish hell (take your pick) that the EPA asked photographer Arthur Tress to document.

Capturing the shores of Brooklyn and Staten Island, Tress's images are unforgettable, no Nat King Cole. Rather, this is unforgettable in the manner of a mangled body glimpsed inside a recently wrecked car along the highway. Brutal (and also beautiful in an austere, bracing way), these images testify to the change in perspective the country has experienced in the last 40 years. But don't go patting yourself on the back too fast—there is much work to be done.

[via Daily Mail]

Photo by Arthur Tress

Photo by Arthur Tress

Photo by Arthur Tress

Photo by Arthur Tress

Photo by Arthur Tress

Photo by Arthur Tress

Photo by Arthur Tress

Photo by Arthur Tress

Photo by Arthur Tress