Gill was hoping the negatives would document the area's vibrant street life.
"The mosaics have became landmarks," said Clayton Patterson, a photographer who has documented the area in Manhattan for 25 years.
Outsiders who look back on the era may not feel as comfortable, an attitude that could explain the void in documenting the area's history.
Befitting such familiar connections, his project started with a suggestion from his wife, an anthropologist, that he should document the area threatened by the proposed hydroelectric plants.
Willie Houston, director of the African-American Museum, said he picked a selection of Mr. Harrison's photographs for an exhibition called "Climbing Jacob's Ladder," running through Aug. 24, documenting the area's black churches because "it was refreshing".
Instead, the research group plans to carefully document the area, hoping that precise measurements will create a baseline for calculating the rate at which is it succumbing to the bacterial feasting.
For a taste of local history, visit the Hannibal Square Heritage Center (642 West New England Avenue; 407-539-2680; hannibalsquareheritagecenter.org), where a collection of photographs and oral histories document the area's beginnings as a Reconstruction-era community for freed slaves.
Photographer Ibolya Feher started documenting the area five years ago.
Braden and Campany shot extensively in the area in the mid-2000s, documentheg the area's strange blend of untamed wilderness and post-industrial artefacts.
They document the area's flourishing avant-garde scenes, including poetry readings and riots in Tompkins Square Park, as well as other parts of the city, and feature self-portraits of the artist and other renowned figures.
