[Woman and cats, Coney Island], circa 1975, V2008.013.8; Lucille Fornasieri Gold photographs; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
For today’s Photo of the Week we have an offering to fans of felines everywhere. Here, the cats are on an expedition to the beach at Coney Island, accompanied by their leopard-patterned mistress.
The photographer is Lucille Fornasieri Gold, born in the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn in 1930. Her father, a professor of architectural studies, first exposed her to photography as a child. She attended Hunter College and later took classes at the Art Student League.
Here is some more background about the photographer from the collection finding aid.
Gold started photographing with a Leica camera in 1968, while her children were in school. She would develop and print in the kitchen darkroom of her home in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn. When she moved, she lost her darkroom and while her negatives were processed, they remained unprinted for years. Starting in the 1990s, she and her second husband, Jack Gold, scanned the negatives, repaired lost detail due to deterioriation using Adobe Photoshop, and printed a curated set of photographs with their home printer. In 2002, Gold retired from the jewelry business and continued to work only on her photography. She moved on to photograph with a digital SLR and continued to review her older negatives for inclusion in curated series. Mrs. Gold died while visiting her son in New Jersey in April 2016.
Interested in seeing more photos from CBH’s collections? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images, or the digital collections portal at Brooklyn Public Library. We welcome appointments to research our entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections. Our reference staff is available to help with your research! You can reach us at cbhreference@bklynlibrary.org.
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