--- title: Hipsterless Brooklyn: Vintage Photos From a Vanished World description: Decades before Brooklyn became synonymous with hipsters, hip-hop and locavores, photographer Ed Clark caught the spirit of the place canonical: https://time.com/3502414/brooklyn-before-hipsters-photos-from-a-vanished-world/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-07T16:56:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:42:48.678Z og:title: Hipsterless Brooklyn: Vintage Photos From a Vanished World og:description: Decades before Brooklyn became synonymous with hipsters, hip-hop and locavores, photographer Ed Clark caught the spirit of the place og:url: https://time.com/3502414/brooklyn-before-hipsters-photos-from-a-vanished-world/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc414b6aa8452ecce/69876059428a9e0f09cc47eb/141013-brooklyn-new-york-16.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2620 og:image:height: 1474 og:image:alt: Brooklyn, New York 1946 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hipsterless Brooklyn: Vintage Photos From a Vanished World twitter:description: Decades before Brooklyn became synonymous with hipsters, hip-hop and locavores, photographer Ed Clark caught the spirit of the place twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc414b6aa8452ecce/69876059428a9e0f09cc47eb/141013-brooklyn-new-york-16.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hipsterless Brooklyn: Vintage Photos From a Vanished World > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Dec 7, 2014 4:56 PM UTC  Subway entrance, Eastern Parkway at Utica Avenue, Brooklyn, 1946. Subway entrance, Eastern Parkway at Utica Avenue, Brooklyn, 1946. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Dec 7, 2014 4:56 PM UTC Brooklyn is big. If it were its own city, and not part of Gotham, its 2.5 million residents would make up the fourth largest metropolis in the United States. Brooklyn covers almost a hundred square miles of intensely varied terrain, from the beaches of [Coney Island](http://www.coneyisland.com/) and Sea Gate to the brownstones of Park Slope and the thronging sidewalks of [Williamsburg](http://www.timeout.com/newyork/brooklyn/williamsburg-brooklyn-neighborhood-guide)—a neighborhood filled with stoop-shouldered young men who, evidently, can afford fedoras but have difficulty finding socks, or pants that fit. There’s cobblestoned Dumbo; the mean streets of East New York; the mansions of Brooklyn Heights; the tree-lined avenues (and, miracle of miracles, driveways) of Ditmas Park; the glories of Prospect Park; the soaring container cranes of Red Hook; the unnameable, party-colored, aromatic ooze of the Gowanus Canal. The borough boasts countless ethnicities, creeds and religions. It’s somehow wildly bustling and unselfconsciously low-key at the same time. It has given the world memorable phrases (_fuhgeddaboudit_) and immortal delicacies (the egg cream—with no egg and no cream). [\[More: A tribute to the Brooklyn Bridge at 130\]](http://life.time.com/architecture-design/the-brooklyn-bridge-the-worlds-most-perfect-span-turns-130/#1) But somehow, recently, Brooklyn has maybe gotten a little _too_ big—or, rather, it’s started to believe the hype about itself, which is another way of saying that it’s not quite as hip as some of its residents, new and old, like to think it is. Not long ago, _GQ_ pronounced Brooklyn the coolest city in America—a verdict that elicited eye rolls everywhere, not least in Brooklyn itself. Meanwhile, _Vogue_ (yes, that _Vogue_) tried to explain “why New Yorkers are flocking to the borough”—evidently forgetting that Brooklynites are already, and have always been, New Yorkers. “Models, writers, actors, and artists have been flocking to New York’s Left Bank for its destination restaurants, bustling farmers’ markets, Parisian-style parks, and passionate dedication to _l’art de vie,”_ panted the [vogue.com](http://www.vogue.com/magazine/article/bonjour-brooklyn-models-writers-actors-and-artists-have-been-flocking-to-this-new-york-city/#1) post. _“_Welcome to the new bohemian chic.” And yet, despite the growing number of creatures swarming Kings County in hopes of hunting down, hog-tying and sucking every last ounce of life from that “new bohemian chic,” Brooklyn remains full of genuinely creative people, great restaurants, fascinating history, eclectic music, art, parks and architecture—in short, the sort of stuff you’d expect from a world-class city. Even one besieged by “New Yorkers.” Here, LIFE.com offers photos of Brooklyn, made by LIFE’s Ed Clark right after World War II, that all these years later reveal something that’s long been elemental to the borough’s enduring appeal: namely, a free-wheeling and, above all, an unpretentious self-confidence. And if that ain’t the key to _l’art de vie_, what is? [\[More: See the gallery, “Lower Manhattan: Where New York Was Born”\]](http://life.time.com/history/lower-manhattan-before-9-11-classic-photos-of-downtown-new-york/#1) Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at[ @LizabethRonk](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk).  View of the Manhattan Bridge, connecting Brooklyn with that island across the East River, 1946. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  From photographer's notes: "Trolleys & tracks at corner of Flushing Ave., Graham & Broadway." Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Brooklyn, New York, 1946. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Corner of Middagh and Hicks, Brooklyn Heights, 1946. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Jumping rope on Siegel Street near Humboldt, Brooklyn, 1946. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  City veterans housing project, Canarsie, Brooklyn, 1946. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Laundry out to dry, Brooklyn, 1946. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Brooklyn street scene, 1946. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Unidentified Brooklynite, 1946. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Taking the sun on a Brooklyn rooftop, 1946. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Listening to a Dodgers-Giants ballgame on the radio, Brooklyn, 1946. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Ebbets Field, 55 Sullivan Place, Brooklyn, 1946. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Dodgers ballgame, Ebbets Field, Brooklyn, 1946. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Dodgers fans, Ebbets Field, Brooklyn, 1946. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Jack Kaufman outside his barber shop on Rogers Avenue in Brooklyn in 1946, holding a signed baseball that once beaned future Hall of Famer Joe Medwick. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Subway entrance, Eastern Parkway at Utica Avenue, Brooklyn, 1946. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Brooklyn, 1946. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Grand Army Plaza, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, 1946. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Prospect Park, Brooklyn, 1946. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Gowanus Canal, Brooklyn, 1946. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  On the waterfront, Brooklyn, 1946. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Moore Street near Graham Avenue, Brooklyn, 1946. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Sumner Avenue (now Marcus Garvey Boulevard) near Myrtle Avenue in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, 1946. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Grocery shopping, Brooklyn, 1946. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Unidentified boys, Brooklyn, 1946. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Under the elevated tracks, Broadway at Lynch, Brooklyn, 1946. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Brooklyn Bridge, 1946. 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