NY Through the Lens - New York City Photography

New York City night. Rain. Bryant Park. Midtown.

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Through eyelashes wet with rain,

a thousand thoughts fall

to the ground

and through the raindrops

the city lights blur together

as shadows make their way

into the night -

impermanence

registered with

every blink.

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New York City. Night skyline.

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Night slides across the sky

like a trumpet’s note falling over a syncopated rhythm

and the stars swoon and sway

mesmerized by the city lights

that pulsate to their own time signature.

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I have been traipsing all over the city for the last few months trying to capture a large majority of New York City’s skyline views. I think everyone has a particular skyline view they immediately think of when they think of the city. And yet, it’s still incredible to me after all this time that I come across different skyline angles that I hadn’t previously come across or had the time to explore before from certain vantage points.

New York City has several prominent skyline views that are popular. One is in lower Manhattan and usually includes the skyscrapers of the Financial District along with the one or more of the bridges that serve the lower part of Manhattan. The other series of skyline views can be found from the top of a few popular skyscrapers in midtown Manhattan. Another series of skyline views involves the midtown Manhattan skyline as seen from different vantage points across (or in some cases directly from) the East River. This particular view is taken from one of the latter vantage points. It’s a 30 second long exposure taken with the Sony A99 on a gorgeously clear and cold night in the beginning of March from Roosevelt Island.

Prominent skyscrapers in this view are the Chrysler Building and the United Nations building (all the way to the left). The lights of other famous midtown skyscrapers can also be seen even if those skyscrapers (looking at you Empire State Building) are hidden in this view. The lights directly in front of the skyscrapers that line the East River belong to the FDR Drive, a major traffic route that lines New York City’s east side.

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New York City - Roosevelt Island Tram view. Midtown.

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I have been afraid of heights since I can remember. Even stepping on a tall foot stool would send me into a frenzied panic. It’s partially a control issue and partially an irrational fear of the eternal “what if” quandary related to my own mortality. And yet, I have discovered as I get older that there is something supremely thrilling about being high up above things especially being high up above New York City. It’s the same scattered sense of adrenaline-fueled excitement I get when I consider the vastness of the ocean. And in some ways, I think both vantage points offer the same sense of displaced wonder.

A month or so ago, I watched an absolutely incredible video called Overview which examined something called the Overview Effect. The Overview Effect is “a cognitive shift in awareness reported by some astronauts and cosmonauts during spaceflight, often while viewing the Earth from orbit or from the lunar surface.” I can’t recommend the video highly enough. It’s a 15 minute short film that explores different astronaut’s life-altering experiences viewing the earth from above for the first time. The footage of earth from above in the film is overwhelming. It’s an emotional journey of a film that definitely has lodged its way into my consciousness. Here it is:

Overview

A few years back, when I went to the top of a skyscraper I had never been to the top of before, I had such an incredibly visceral reaction when I experienced seeing the city from above. It was rough for me to even take the elevator up 70 floors to the observation deck. I clenched my sweaty fists and closed my eyes the whole time deep breathing probably much to the amusement (or dread) of the fellow elevator passengers. Once I stepped out and onto the upper deck, I was hooked. It was as if I was seeing the city for the first time. Once you take yourself out and away from the streets that surround you, it’s as if the city opens up its arms to you. It’s fascinating to consider all of the activity and stories that are contained in any one part of such a view.

In the short film I linked above, one of the astronauts describes the Overview Effect saying that common features include a feeling of awe for the planet, and a profound understanding of the interconnection of all life among other perspective-shifting feelings. And I really think that anytime we take ourselves high above or deep below the reality we experience every day, it produces different (subtler when it comes to standing on the top of a skyscraper and perhaps more overwhelming in regards to being deep in the ocean) versions of the Overview Effect.

Since experiencing that amazing feeling when I pushed past my fear of heights to take myself high above my own every-day reality, I have actively pushed myself to seek out as many high vantage points as I can. This particular image (taken with the Sony A99) was taken high above the 59th Street Bridge (also known as the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge) entrance overlooking the buildings and skyscrapers that make up the New York City skyline in midtown Manhattan.

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Williamsburg Bridge pedestrian walkway. New York City.

I have been on a strange sort of journey lately when it comes to photography. And I have noticed a shift in my vision or rather a slight deepening of meaning that I am seeking when it comes to the imagery I have been consuming and capturing. I have been watching a tremendous amount of documentaries about photography and photographers trying to understand where my own peculiar sort of artistic unrest is originating from. I suspect the angst has to do with a visual tiredness and unease at the overwhelming amount of imagery that seems to be in circulation at any given moment online. I am pondering writing a series of essays on the rise of mass consumption and sharing and how it correlates to various trends in offline photography but the ideas are all still percolating.

A series that really, really touched me though is called Contacts. I devoured all of Contacts: Volume 2 - The Revival of Contemporary Photography and Contacts: Volume 3: Conceptual Photography over the course of two nights. It’s a collection of tiny vignettes that explore different photographer’s contact sheets and/or body of work while they explain or talk about their work. I think I have watched the vignette of Sarah Moon’s work set to her stream-of-consciousness description of her own inward photographic journey over a dozen times at this point (it even ended up on my “Scenes that have stuck to my ribs and clung to my heart” playlist on Youtube: the ultimate testament to it becoming a part of my consciousness permanently ;) ).

When I first watched it and listened, I could barely stop the tears from flowing because it was absolutely perfect (and even that would be an understatement):

Contacts: Volume 2 - Sarah Moon

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I had an entirely different set of thoughts I wanted to include with this image of the Williamsburg Bridge (taken with the trusty Sony A99) but I seem to have veered in a different direction perhaps because all of this has been on my mind for weeks. And that’s fine, now that I think of it, because in some ways, there couldn’t be a more fitting recent image to accompany this post.

“Time goes by. Light falls. I lose confidence. I don’t want to be a photographer anymore…

Then, all of a sudden, but not always, something changes, I can’t say why, maybe I’m just in the right place at the right time, or maybe I believe in it.

However, for a split second, I see a sparkle of beauty passing by, everything goes so quickly now within that stillness, and I’m carried away, and at last I like what I see, and I can’t stop finding it, then losing it, and all day long I keep on, because it once existed.” - Sarah Moon

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Under the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge. Midtown. New York City

I had a recurring dream when I was younger that puzzled me for years. It involved boarding a hovering bubble shaped vehicle and ascending over the skyscrapers until I was soaring under the bridges and through the cavern-like spaces of the city. It was euphoric but also terrifying at the same time. When I was older, I finally relayed the dream to someone and they laughed and asked if I had ever taken the Roosevelt Island tram when I was very young. I had no recollection of it. It prompted me to ask my mother if we had ever done such a thing and she said it was possible but she couldn’t remember a specific time that we would have done it (my mother, like me, is absolutely terrified of heights). It’s possible that my family took the tram to Roosevelt Island at some point and the experience embedded itself deep into my imagination where it mixed with other flights of fancy (pun intended) of flying through a Gotham-like city like Batman.

So, when I found myself photographing the underbelly of the 59th Street Bridge (also known as the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge or just the Queensboro Bridge) with the Sony A99 late last week, it was hard not to recall those earlier dreams and feelings they invoked while I stood there waiting for the long exposure to capture 30 seconds of what had haunted me for years. The bridge is one of my favorite ones in the city. Its architecture is distinctive when viewed from the side but I absolutely love how slick and dripping-with-sci-fi-overtones it appears when viewed from below. The bridge travels from darkness into the light of a gleaming New York City as the water below it only stirs with the occasional disruption of a boat. You can also make out the cables that the Roosevelt Island tram travels on to the right of the bridge.

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New York Winter - Snowy night in midtown Manhattan

New York City resembles a snow-globe when snow first falls.

As the snow swirls, the trees reach over the city streets as if they are trying to catch snowflakes with their bare, graceful branches.

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This was taken at night during a winter storm in New York City that dropped enough snow to turn the city into a winter wonderland momentarily. This is the area on 42nd Street next to Bryant Park across from the Grace Building which can be seen partially on the left-hand side of the image.

It’s one of my favorite spots to snow-gaze at night.

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Taken with the Sony A99.

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The New York City skyline with Financial District skyscrapers in lower Manhattan.

In the winter, there is a clarity and edge that is carried on the frigid fingers of icy air and crystallized exhales.

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I have been really getting into long exposures. There is something incredibly zen about the experience of setting up, and taking long exposures. The waiting is interesting. It forces a pause in the process. You start to be hyper-aware of the movement of clouds and light transitions. In the winter especially, it’s a commitment. The minute or so of waiting seems to encompass an eternity of thought(s).

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This is a 30 second exposure of the lower Manhattan skyline featuring the skyscrapers of the Financial District and Pier 17 taken with the Sony a99. The Freedom Tower (also known as 1 WTC or One World Trade Center), New York by Gehry, the Woolworth Building and the spire of the Municipal Building can all be seen here.

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New York rain. Romance on Doyers Street. Chinatown.

Stolen moments are the sweetest moments.

When the rest of the city has escaped for the day, the world melts away with a lingering kiss under an umbrella.

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It’s really no secret that Doyers Street is one of my favorite streets in lower Manhattan. It’s an alley (or very narrow street) that is usually photographed from an entirely different angle. In fact, the fact that it has a sharp angle in it goes along with its colorful history. Its angle was known as “the Bloody Angle” for part of the 20th century due to gang violence.

This is just around the bend from the more popular part of the angle and also across from one of my favorite noodle shops in Chinatown. I love moments like this that are so completely candid but somehow feel cinematic. I had just walked out from the above-mentioned noodle shop when I was met with this scene. It was too perfect to not quickly capture, of course.

To all who celebrate Valentine’s Day and to all who do not celebrate - I wish you romantic moments like this one. ♥

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Taken with the Sony A55.

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Central Park winter path. Shakespeare Garden in the snow.

I think back to days spent wrapped in the cold silence of freshly fallen snow in Central Park.

The labyrinth-like path leading from Shakespeare Garden lined by a wooden fence twists and turns in the snow winding its way under trees whose branches reach out to each other like eager arms awaiting the warmth of an embrace.

It’s on days like this when the sun rests longer than usual and winter’s essence seeps through every crack and crevice that the earth quivers a ghost shiver that rests in summer’s memory.

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The rustic wooden fence rests on a four acre section of Central Park known as the Shakespeare Garden which is located in the west part of the park near 79th Street. On the 300th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death in 1916, this area was dedicated to Shakespeare and named. The plants and flowers that are found in this area are all mentioned in the works of the playwright and are also plants and flowers that are found in his garden in Starford-upon-Avon. There is even a white mulberry tree on this four acre plot of land that is said to have grown from a graft of a tree planted by Shakespeare himself in the 1600s.

While the paths that winds through Central Park’s Shakespeare Garden is gorgeous in the warmer months of the year, it’s absolutely stunning when snow has freshly fallen.

This photo was taken during one of the last major snowstorms (a blizzard) in New York City back in 2011. We haven’t seen snow like this, in this magnitude, since then. I have been going through my photos from the two blizzards we experienced that winter season wondering if we will ever see snow like this again. Who knows?

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Storm clouds and tenements. Chinatown, New York City.

As storm clouds approach, the sun washes over the city showering its splendor onto the urban landscape like a brilliant star projecting its last bits of light into the vast universe.

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I love the light on the buildings in this section of Chinatown before a storm. This particular view overlooks the tenements that face the Forsyth Market under the Manhattan Bridge where produce and other food is sold daily in a sprawling open air market.

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New York City in the snow. Central Park winter landscape at Bow Bridge.

There is something undeniably magical that occurs as the snow falls

swirling and twirling in the air

until it hits the ground heavy with the weight of a thousand promises:

exultations and dreams held close to the earth

in the stillness between wintry pauses

as the city lays in wait

like a snow-globe resting between giddy shakes of joy.

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Bow Bridge is one of Central Park’s most iconic structures. It was built between 1859 and 1862 and is shaped like an archer’s bow. This particular image was taken during a snowstorm in Central Park, New York City. Bow Bridge sits covered by a beautiful layer of freshly fallen snow as the buildings that line Central Park West sit in the distance just past the snow-laden trees.

I am a bit giddy because it appears that New York City may actually get some snow tomorrow. I read this highly entertaining piece of writing by Andy Newman in the NY Times earlier: “Tomorrow, It Will Snow, Perfectly” which had me at hello with its opening paragraph:

“The ideal city snowstorm, meteorological Platonists say, blankets the landscape without burying it, beautifies but does not burden, transforms and cocoons without paralyzing or even particularly inconveniencing.”

Of course, I always feel a bit like Winona Ryder in one of the best scenes from Edward Scissorhands (the music from that scene = awesome) during the first real snow of the winter season here.

Here’s hoping! :)

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P.S. Edited to add that yes, this is the same bridge that Dr. Who ran over in the Angels take Manhattan episode.

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New York City skyscrapers and a bird. Midtown.

Birds have a synchronous relationship with the city.

They fly with such brazen freedom through the man-made caverns soaring above the frenetic flow of the city below.

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Central Park winter trees covered in snow. New York City.

Winter crunches underfoot yielding to the heavy enormity of the sheer weight of souls in transition. Trees laden with snow frozen in thought stand dormant until the springtime.

It’s on these sorts of days that the earth feels as if it is caught in a trance somewhere between dreaming and opening its frozen eyelids.

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I love when the snow first falls in New York City - especially in Central Park. The quiet muffled stillness and icy warmth combine to pause the city’s frenetic energy for a few hours.

This was taken the last time we had major snowfall in Manhattan during a blizzard. In truth, it probably wasn’t the safest idea to be walking around Central Park when the wind gusts were so terrifyingly high but during the moments when the winds stopped, it was eerily beautiful.

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New York City in the rain. Flatiron District, Midtown.

There is an inherent romance that buzzes through the air in New York City when it rains.

The Flatiron District is one of my favorite areas in Manhattan when it rains. The street (5th Avenue) opens up to reveal distant skyscrapers that disappear into heavy fog as people weave their way through the multitudes of umbrellas.

The clock in this image is the Fifth Avenue Building Clock (a close-up image and its history is in this post) which is a New York City landmark and recalls another era: one where these ornamental clocks played a role in attracting people to gilded era storefronts. This vantage point is with the Flatiron Building directly in back of the viewer looking up 5th Avenue.

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I have had quite a few requests that I add some of my New York City mobile photography to my online store and portfolio since people are looking to buy holiday gifts. This is the first of one of those requests. It was taken with my phone and has been lovingly added (link below!).

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Rain. Greenwich Village, New York City.

Rain is the sky’s love song to the city.

The sky opens up revealing an other-worldly light that cloaks the city in effervescent splendor.

Sidewalks and streets, slick with promise, mirror the movement of urban explorers navigating the sleek concrete as taxi lights shine their refracted, blurred lights into the vast expanse of the rain-soaked landscape.

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Sharing this photo today since I talked about it (briefly) and a few other photos of mine on Trey Ratcliff’s Stuck in Customs Show last night. Trey was traveling and I was asked last minute if I would be on the show with a few other street photographers to discuss some of our work. It was a great time! The other photographers on the show were Eric Kim and Rinzi Ruiz and it was hosted by Karen Hutton and Dave Veffer. I am already a huge fan of Eric’s street photography but I wasn’t familiar with Rinzi’s work and it completely blew me away.

While the majority of my work tends to focus on New York City’s landscapes and architecture and is devoid of people, it was nice to discuss a few of my photos that do have people in them and talk a little bit about my philosophy on shooting people in the city and the narratives I tend to gravitate towards when dealing with people shots.

It’s always interesting to see how certain themes emerge with any art form and I seem to have a fondness for street photography in the rain. I blame New York City for that fondness. It’s just so incredibly moody and beautiful when it rains here :).

You can view the show from last night here: Trey’s Variety Hour #53: Street Photography

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