Unintended Irony at the Red Hook BWAC Show

[Photo courtsey of Nate Kensinger]

We know that irony is in the eye of the beholder and we're also aware that timing is everything. And so, we'll say up front that we missed the fun at the opening of the excellent Brooklyn Waterfront Artist's Coalition show this weekend by about 45 minutes. Nonetheless, we arrived to the story of how Borough President Marty Markowitz had posed for some photos in front of an exhibition of pics taken by one of our favorite Brooklyn photographers, Nate Kensinger, who goes by the flickr name Gowanus. Mr. Kensinger, who also has his own photoblog called Nate Kensinger Photography, is exhibiting some photos celebrating the disappearing industrial heritage of Red Hook. We know that he is not photographing the neighborhood to cheer its redevelopment for Ikea and Bed, Bath & Beyond. Like other photographers, Mr. Kensinger is chronicling the disappearance of a landscape whose loss is mourned by some Brooklynites and whose big box replacements like Ikea are not universally supported. The photo in front of which Mr. Markowitz posed included the Red Hook Graving Dock (now filled in for parking) and the demolished Revere Sugar Dome. The Borough president, however, said the photos show the great development progress being made in Red Hook. "Come back to this neighborhood in 10 years, and you won't even recognize it," he said.

To which we simply say: Exactly.