A tale of two New York Cities - in pictures

Coming to America, c 1951 by Louis Stettner
'Cecil Beaton set his sights on New York as "a pot of gold" that he intended to raid,' says Peter Conrad. 'The Photo League show has an ironic commentary on this mercenary declaration: in Louis Stettner’s ‘Coming to America’, a Jewish immigrant and his child, swaddled in blankets, huddle on the deck of a ship, buffeted by gales as they stare at a flailing wintry ocean. The promised land is nowhere to be seen' Photograph: Louis Stettner/Courtesy Bonni Benrubi Gallery

Butterfly Boy, New York, 1949 by Jerome Liebling Photograph: Estate of Jerome Liebling

Untitled (Brooklyn Bridge), 1938 by Alexander Alland Photograph: Estate of Alexander Alland, Sr.

Coney Island, c. 1947 by Sid Grossman
The drab streets where the Photo League worked were also a theatre, but of a different kind to the one portrayed by Beaton Photograph: Sid Grossman/Howard Greenberg Gallery

Untitled (Subway Car), 1949 by Sy Kattelson
'The Photo League reconstructs the collaborative labour of documentarians concerned with groups of people Beaton snootily overlooked' Photograph: Sy Kattelson

Max Is Rushing in the Bagels to a Restaurant on Second Avenue for the Morning Trade, c. 1940 by Weegee Photograph: Weegee/International Center of Photography/Getty Images

Shoemaker's Lunch, 1944 by Bernard Cole Photograph: Estate of Bernard Cole

Sidewalk Clock, New York, 1947 by Ida Wyman Photograph: Ida Wyman

Slums Must Go! May Day Parade, New York, c. 1936 by Joe Schwartz
'Photo League policy discouraged them from wasting their time on the idly rich and the fatuously famous. For them, the camera’s purpose was to make social problems visible, not to flatter celebrities' Photograph: Joe Schwartz

Spaghetti 25 Cents, New York, 1945 by Ida Wyman Photograph: Ida Wyman

Marlene Dietrich in New York, 1937 by Cecil Beaton Photograph: Courtesy Cecil Beaton Studio Archive at Sotheby's

Greta Garbo, 1946 by Cecil Beaton
'The people who fascinated Beaton were mythical freaks, both more and less than human. He described Garbo as a unicorn, Truman Capote as a perverse cherub and the bloated gossipmonger Elsa Maxwell as an obese butterfly.' Photograph: Cecil Beaton Studio Archive at Sotheby's

Truman Capote in Morocco, 1949 by Cecil Beaton Photograph: Courtesy Cecil Beaton Studio Archive at Sotheby's

Audrey Hepburn in a costume for the film version of My Fair Lady, 1963 by Cecil Beaton Photograph: Courtesy Cecil Beaton Studio Archive at Sotheby's

Andy Warhol and Candy Darling, New York City, 1969 by Cecil Beaton
'Beaton's celebrities survey the world from behind cool, emotionally impervious faces' Photograph: Courtesy Cecil Beaton Studio Archive at Sotheby's

Diana Vreeland, 1954 by Cecil Beaton Photograph: Courtesy Cecil Beaton Studio Archive at Sotheby's