Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, Polshek Partnership ©Jeff Goldberg/Esto

Alright, people. I am willing to concede that – maybe, just maybe – joining our flickr pool and tagging your photos UrbanOmnibus might not achieve the heights of your aspirations to photo-document the built environment of New York. So here’s your chance to work with leading architectural photographers and archivists and to contribute original photography to an exhibition that will interrogate how the physical city has changed since 2001.

New New York is a biannual series of exhibitions organized by the Architectural League that explores new architecture and planning initiatives in New York City. Early next year, the League will present the sixth in this series, New New York 6: 1000 Blocks, which will focus on changes in the city in the past eight years. The primary visual material for this exhibit will draw from the work of the New New York Photography Corps, a team of volunteer photographers that will document the transformation of the urban landscape in the wake of the recent building boom.

Perhaps you’ve always harbored a secret daydream of traveling back in time to join the ranks of Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange and Lewis Hine as they photographed the ravages of the Great Depression for the Farm Security Administration. More likely, that’s just me. Or perhaps you’ve been inspired by our photographic features to bring your camera with you as you wander the city’s streets. More likely, you were doing that already.

Whatever your motivation, if you’re even a little bit photographically inclined, I think you should join the the New New York Photography Corps. To sign up, please send a brief bio with a letter describing your interest in the project to nny@archleague.org.

Read on for more details and a more thorough explanation of the goals and premises of the exhibition.

The Architectural League of New York and Esto announce:

The New New York Photography Corps: A Call for Participants

The Architectural League and Esto invite architects and related design professionals to participate in an important photography project that will document the changing face of New York City since 2001.

In winter 2010, the Architectural League will present New New York 6: 1000 Blocks, the sixth in an ongoing series of exhibitions organized by the League that explores new architecture and planning initiatives in New York City. New New York 6 will specifically examine the full scope of design and planning in New York since 2001, considering how the policies and priorities of the Bloomberg administration, a frenzied economy, and an increasing interest among the general public in architecture and design combined to dramatically transform the shape of the city.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the League and Esto are organizing the New New York Photography Corps, a team of architects and members of related professions who will serve as volunteer photographers to document changes in the city following the recent building boom. Loosely conceived along the lines of the WPA artists’ and writers’ projects of the 1930s, the New New York Photography Corps will provide the primary visual material around which the New New York 6 exhibition will be organized. It will also offer participants a unique opportunity to consider the role of photography in describing urban spaces, in addition to having their work reviewed, discussed, and included in a major exhibition.

The project will begin with several introductory workshops, with Esto photographers and others, that will address topics ranging from the basics of architectural photography to the history of New York City in images. Corps members will then be given assignments to photograph different buildings and neighborhoods around the city during October and November 2009, based on the needs and priorities of the exhibition. Opportunities for criticism and feedback will be an important component of the project through occasional pin-ups and crits. The exhibition is scheduled to open in January 2010.

Requirements: A background in architecture or a related design profession is preferred. No prior experience in photography is required, although participants will need to use their own digital photography equipment. Architects and designers at all levels in their careers are encouraged to apply, as are those who are currently unemployed or under-employed. Photography Corps members will be active collaborators in the production of the exhibition, so a sustained commitment to the project throughout fall 2009 will be expected. Participation will be on a voluntary basis.

To sign up, please send a brief bio with a letter describing your interest in the project to nny@archleague.org.

New New York 6: 1000 Blocks is organized by the Architectural League of New York.

Organizing Committee: Amale Andraos, Rosalie Genevro, Hugh Hardy, Granger Moorhead, Robert Moorhead, Lyn Rice, Anne Rieselbach, Varick Shute, Erica Stoller, and Gregory Wessner

About Esto: Esto represents working photographers and maintains a photo archive dealing with the built environment. The photographers include Peter Aaron, Francis Dzikowski, Jeff Goldberg, Anton Grassl, Peter Mauss, David Sundberg, and Albert Vecerka. The image archive was created around the work of Ezra Stoller (1915-1994), the dean of American architectural photographers, and includes the work of over one hundred other contributors from around the world.

Erica Stoller, the director of Esto, will act as the photo editor of the New New York exhibition. Members of the Esto staff will be available to provide advice on image production and file delivery.