NY Through the Lens - New York City Photography

The Brooklyn Bridge. New York City.

When the clouds pull their veils back from the sky’s face after a storm, the light hits the world at such an angle that even the most rigid man-made creations glimmer like the water’s surface in the sun.

If you could distill New York City down to an essence so pure that it glimmered in such a way, it would look like this: captured, cooled, magnificent in its indistinguishable hand-woven-steel beauty.

—-

View this photo larger and on black on my Google Plus page

—-

—-

Buy “Distillation process - The Brooklyn Bridge - New York City” Prints here, email me, or ask for help.

Soho street in bright afternoon sunlight. New York City.

In the bright afternoon light of the sun, the city squints its eyes momentarily.

Buildings emerge from their slumbering shadows and streets glisten.

It’s during this momentary squint that every sun gleam and distant figure on each sun-kissed street flicker in and out of view: urban mirages filtered through the eyes of the city.

—-

I just wanted to share that this past weekend for the first time ever I had a request for and sold a visual print of one of my pieces of writing to accompany a print (this poem) . I have never been so happy!

I get really excited every time I sell a print but to sell a piece of writing is something I consider really special because my words are so intrinsically linked to my photography (and vice versa). Many thanks to the wonderful customer!

—-

View this photo larger and on black on my Google Plus page

—-

Buy “Urban Mirages - Soho Street - New York City” Prints here, email me, or ask for help.

Man with a newspaper on Rivington Street. Lower East Side, New York City.

There are moments that seem as if they have been transported from an entirely different era right into the heart of today. This is one of them. The gentleman sitting here in his three piece suit and fedora was casually enjoying his newspaper while sitting next to a few closed storefronts on a rather moody, overcast day.

When I first moved to this neighborhood a few years ago, I noted the Botánica which was open for a few hours every day. A few of the neighbors in my apartment building who have lived here on the Lower East Side for decades would frequent the Botánica on a weekly basis. I have noticed that it no longer appears to be open which saddens me. I am unsure if the closure is permanent or merely temporary but I do still wonder where my older neighbors go for their Botánica needs.

A botánica is a retail store that sells folk medicine, religious candles and statuary, amulets, and other products regarded as magical or as alternative medicine. Some botánicas also carry incense, perfumes and oils. While these stores are common in many Hispanic American countries and communities of Latino people elsewhere botánicas can also be found in any United States city that has a sizable Latino/a population, particularly those with ties to the Caribbean.

The name botánica is Spanish and translates as “botany” or “plant” store, referring to these establishments’ function as dispensaries of medicinal herbs. Medicinal herbs may be sold dried or fresh, prepackaged or in bulk. The stores almost always feature a variety of implements endemic to Roman Catholic religious practice such as rosary beads, holy water, and images of saints. In addition, most have products associated with other spiritual practices such as candomblé, curanderismo, espiritismo, macumba and santería. Source

—-

This is my weekly mobile photography post. I am @newyorklens on Instagram (view my feed here). You can read about my thoughts on mobile photography and Instagram here and you can check out some of my Instagram photos on Flickr here. Additionally, you can view my phone photography for sale here.

—-

View my photography for sale here, View my phone photography for sale here, email me, or ask for help.

Street art mural. Soho, New York City.

Just a small announcement that my Instacanvas store finally went live this evening! It’s basically a place to purchase my Instagram photos on canvas and thus will only ever contain the snippets of New York City that I capture with my phone. Here it is:

New York City Photography on Instacanvas

My regular photography store is still over on SmugMug where you can find my more formal photography:

New York City Photography Store

That is all! :)

I hope that everyone is having a splendid evening (or morning/afternoon depending on where you are in the world).

—-

—-

View my photography for sale here, email me, or ask for help.

Above a street in the Two Bridges neighborhood. New York City.

There are areas in lower Manhattan where fragments of the city’s history have settled like fine dust, fragile and prone to the whims of time.

Around these hallowed enclaves, newer history reaches higher towards the sky and rises from the ground borne from the dust of the city’s past.

This particular spot is known as Two Bridges and sits along the East River. It borders Chinatown and the Lower East Side and has long been a dwelling spot for many different immigrant communities over the years. It sits alongside the infamous and historic Five Points area where Irish, Jewish and Italian gangs battled to the death in the mid-19th century. It is currently home to a large community of Chinese immigrants and many of the buildings are tenements dating back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

—-

View this photo larger and on black on my Google Plus page

—-

Buy “Fragments - Overlooking Two Bridges - New York City” Prints here, email me, or ask for help.

Street art and a bicycle. Soho, New York City

Through each scattered urban landscape every sidewalk dream unfolds periphally as daily adventurers traverse the city full of promise and silent giddy trepidation.

It’s in the quiet still moments marked by emptiness, vast loneliness and encroaching solitude that these peripheral dreamscapes come into focus.

These moments, suspended in time, marinate in the severity of their potential to eventually etch themselves into the eternity of the mind.

The rest of time moves with the rapid ebb and flow of life like bits and pieces of paint on a wall chipping and peeling off, finally scattering like a discarded lover’s flower petals in the wind.

—-

View this photo larger and on black on my Google Plus page

—-

Buy “Sidewalk Dream - Street Art - New York City” Prints here, email me, or ask for help.

The Chrysler Building. Midtown, New York City.

If you are fortunate enough to look up at exactly the right time, you can catch the sun dancing along the top of the Chrysler Building.

As the sun glides across the iconic spire, it leaves glimmering trails: shimmering footsteps connecting the sky to the city.

The Chrysler Building is a classic example of Art Deco architecture. Designed by architect William Van Alen for a project of Walter P. Chrysler, it was the headquarters of the Chrysler Corporation from 1930 until the mid 1950’s. Even though the building was built and designed specifically for the car manufacturer, the corporation did not pay for the construction of it and never owned it, as Walter P. Chrysler decided to pay for it himself, so that his children could inherit it.

Upon its completion on May 20, 1930, the added height of the spire allowed the Chrysler Building to surpass 40 Wall Street as the tallest building in the world and the Eiffel Tower as the tallest structure. It was the first man-made structure to stand taller than 1,000 feet.

—-

View this photo larger and on black on my Google Plus page

—-

Buy “Touching the Sky - The Chrysler Building - New York City” Prints here, email me, or ask for help.

Cobble Hill brownstones on a cloudy day. Brooklyn, New York City.

I had severe brownstone envy when I was younger. Growing up in Queens (another borough of New York City), I visited Brooklyn frequently and the brownstones found in Brooklyn tugged at my heart. Their ornate doorways were flanked by enormous and extravagant stairways and every window seemed to be a frame encapsulating an enticing painting.

There wasn’t anything that came close to these beautiful works of architecture where I grew up in Queens. Watching the Cosby Show fueled my envy of course. I had no idea at the time that the exterior shots of the Cosby’s brownstone were shot in Greenwich Village and not in Brooklyn Heights where the Cosby’s fictional residence was located (why they did this is beyond me since Brooklyn Heights has some of the most beautiful brownstones).

All I knew was that these masterpieces of architecture just seemed more ‘New York City’ than any of the buildings I grew up surrounded by.

—-

View this photo larger and on black on my Google Plus page

—-

Buy “Cobble Hill Brownstone - Brooklyn - New York City” Prints here, email me, or ask for help.

Lower East Side alley. New York City.

In the darkest canals of the city where light seeps through slowly, wanderers emerge bleary-eyed into the sun: birthed explorers carrying darkness into the light.

—-

There is a solitary aspect to living in such a highly populated city such as New York City.

It’s easier to sink into the shadows.

People pass in stairways and on sidewalks with vigorous abandon : ghosts brushing shoulders in a daily anonymous tango.

—-

View this photo larger and on black on my Google Plus page

—-

Buy “In the Shadows - Lower East Side Alley - New York City” Prints here, email me, or ask for help.

Instagram and photo sharing. ABC No Rio. Lower East Side, New York City.

Are any of you on Instagram? I finally broke down and started using Instagram a few days ago (before the big news yesterday) and I have to say I am really into it. My name there is newyorklens. It reminds me a lot of when I first started using Tumblr actually which was my very first foray into the world of photo sharing!

I have read so many rants against Instagram that cover all sorts of sociological, aesthetic and technological concerns regarding either the propensity for sharing and oversharing as well as dislike of the filters on Instagram.

I find Instagram freeing to some extent. As someone who has very little money and has had to work with the limitations of my own (lack of) fabulous camera equipment over the past few years, I have to say that I can understand the appeal of phone photography in general. I have never been a person to turn my nose up at phone photography because I understand that this is a way for people to express themselves with the tool(s) they have available. I even know photographers who own other cameras but choose to focus on phone photography because they love the challenge and immediate quality of it.

Is there perceived mediocrity with phone photography (and on Instagram and other photo sharing sites/apps)? Of course. But there is perceived mediocrity in the field of regular photography where “real” cameras are utilized (real in quotes for obvious reasons related to the context of this post) and on all of the photo-sharing sites and services that currently exist.

Something that I enjoy about Instagram is that I get to share the quirkier things I see in my everyday travels that may or may not end up in my traditional photography. This photo for example was taken quickly yesterday while on the way back to my apartment which is nearby. It’s one of my favorite facades on the Lower East Side and I loved how the sunlight was illuminating it.

Is this photo any less than a photo I may have taken with my regular camera? What if I post-processed a traditional digital photo to look exactly like this (I happen to actually love the effect). Would that make it anymore worthwhile to the people who make protestations about the filters used in phone photography?

I won’t be posting my Instagram photos all that much because I enjoy the process of revealing them on Instagram and interacting with them there and later on Flickr where I end up sharing them (my folder of my recent Instagram photos is here: New York City Instagram Photos) but I wanted to open up a discourse regarding the broader implications of mobile photo sharing.

—-

For reference, ABC No Rio is a collectively-run center for art and activism on the Lower East Side. It was founded in 1980 by artists committed to political and social engagement with the goal to facilitate cross-pollination between artists and activists.

—-

If you didn’t see my initial contest entry post for the current Artists Wanted photography contest, you can still help me out by going to my contest entry page and clicking collect me

—-

View this photo larger and on black on my Google Plus page

—-

Looking out over the skyscrapers of the New York City skyline. Midtown.

There is an inherent romance that can be found in the sheer density of the architecture of New York City.

Buildings huddle close like lovers before a nervous first kiss. Their bodies rise up to the sky proud and majestic each one holding dozens if not thousands of stories.

If you look intently you can see their bold spirits traveling with the wind carrying the hopes and dreams of those who share their world to soaring heights of possibility and promise.

—-

If you didn’t see my initial contest entry post for the current Artists Wanted photography contest, you can still help me out by going to my contest entry page and clicking collect me

—-

View this photo larger and on black on my Google Plus page

—-

Buy “Like Lovers - Skyscrapers of the New York City Skyline” Prints here, email me, or ask for help.

Rain. Washington Square. 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.

—-

View this photo larger and on black on my Google Plus page

—-

Buy “Rain - Greenwich Village - New York City” Prints here, email me, or ask for help.

Chinatown rooftop graffiti. Two Bridges, New York City.

New York City is an urban layer cake.

This is another one of my favorite views in lower Manhattan. It’s a small segment of an entire universe that exists above millions of New Yorkers.

Layers of colorful graffiti cover the rooftops of these Chinatown apartment buildings as rooftop doors blow open in the wind and colorful clothing sways on clotheslines high above the city below.

—-

View this photo larger and on black on my Google Plus page

—-

Buy “Chinatown Rooftop Graffiti - New York City” Posters and Prints here, email me, or ask for help.

The Heart of the Brooklyn Bridge - the New York City skyline.

If the Brooklyn Bridge could pick the perfect Valentine, it would be New York City. It’s hard to argue that the Brooklyn Bridge’s heart isn’t completely devoted to New York City.

Its steel arteries all seem to lead away from its center towards the magnificent skyline that dominates lower Manhattan while its metal veins travel from Brooklyn to its very core.

I don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day personally but I wish each and every one of you a fabulous Valentine’s Day if you celebrate it. Here is to hoping that everyone finds a special someone at some point who is the New York City to their Brooklyn Bridge.

—-

View this photo larger and on black on my Google Plus page

—-

Buy “From the Heart of the Brooklyn Bridge - The New York City Skyline ” Posters and Prints here, View my store, email me, or ask for help.