NY Through the Lens - New York City Photography

Crossing Lower Broadway. Greenwich Village, New York City.

In keeping with my promise to post a photo every week taken with my phone, here is this week’s 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.

As I experiment more and more with photo-editing apps for phone cameras, I find myself falling more and more in love with mobile photography. I branched out this past week and tried out Photoforge2 and VSCO and it was something of a revelation to me.

Photoforge2 has quickly become one of my core editing apps for my phone images. It has many of the same tools you would find in Photoshop and/or Lightroom and its features are staggering in their editing and creative capacities. I still also tinker around with Snapseed and Noir.

As my editing app arsenal has grown, I have found myself deeply interested in how the current crop of photo-sharing networks differ from each other. I really love Instagram. The community (or I suppose I should say ‘communities’) there is/are enthusiastic and very welcoming. I can’t remember the last time I had such a high response to things I have shared relative to the amount of people following me. People seem far more invested in the people they follow on Instagram than on other networks I have tried out so far. However, my trials are limited since I have literally only been dabbling in phone photography for a little over 3 weeks and I have only been using a few of the newer networks I have tried for 1 or 2 weeks

A few people I know via other photography communities online turned me on to the world of EyeEm (you can view my limited feed and my EyeEm account here) a few weeks ago and I have been on Streamzoo for as long as I have been on Instagram.

I came across this article last week: Is Instagram Defining, and Therefore Ruining, Mobile Photography? which made for interesting reading in light of my photo-sharing network dabbling. While I feel that some of the author’s points are a bit muddled, there are some interesting points made that could probably be applied to all networks online in terms of the democratization of all forms of photography, mobile or otherwise.

One thing that I think the author may have wrong is that there are some very vibrant, serious mobile photography communities on Instagram that are focused on the art of mobile photography. Instagram is the most popular out of all of the photo-sharing mobile networks though and with multitudes of users comes an increase in noise. I think this is where EyeEm shines for people who are interested in viewing and sharing mobile photography that transcends snapshot-status. I find the talent on EyeEm to be staggering. However, I think that the interface design (specifically for iPhones) is a bit lacking and in some cases non-intuitive. The community is also very small in comparison to a service like Instagram and it can be hard to break through and find other people to interact with.

I will continue to post to all 3 networks though for now. I find that each network has its own strengths and weaknesses. I do enjoy the random spontaneity of my Instagram feed and slipping in a cat photo (or two, or three…or ten :) ) doesn’t feel like an assault to the people following me versus on EyeEm where the level of photography is higher and I feel compelled to post more serious photos!

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FAILE street art. Houston and Bowery. East Village, New York City.

FAILE is a street art collaboration between Patrick McNeil and Patrick Miller. This wheat-paste masterpiece is the current project of theirs that graces the iconic wall at the corner of Houston Street and the Bowery.

When I was really young I used to imagine that at night when the majority of people went to sleep in New York City, all of the graffiti and street art on the walls would come to life. I still like to think this is the case.

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St. Mark’s Place party balloons. East Village, New York City.

Before I run off to do birthday things, since today is my birthday (yes!), I wanted to share this lovely festive photo of balloons blowing in the wind on St. Mark’s Place in the East Village along with some information about how to find me on Google Currents.

It turns out that I am now a curator on Google Currents and this means that you can now view my photos and posts on your Android, iPhone and iPad. I really love the layout and how feeds look on Google Currents. I hope you do too. You can find me there by clicking here:

Vivienne Gucwa’s New York City photography on Google Currents

I have been having a really wonderful birthday week. I will post more about the new lens I received as an early birthday gift on Monday in another post. Suffice to say that I am having a blast and there are cupcakes on my current agenda. How can you go wrong with that?!

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Night. East Village, New York City.

As the city moves furtively into shadows, buildings render themselves one by one in the cold glow of street lamps whose light burns brightly against the dark expanse of night: supernovas pushing against gravity and their inevitable collapse into themselves.

And we wait: unaware of the solemnity of the situation.

We wait under these man-made white dwarfs pushing our dreams to the skies beyond our grasps forever propelling ourselves forward while standing completely still.

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East Village street at night. New York City.

At night when the city pauses, street lights flicker; electrical synapses trigger dream sputters and whirring blinks of sleepy eyes open and shut in the darkness.

Traversing this elaborate noir dreamscape, reverie-wayfarers pause; stop-motion refugees lit only by the cool blinks of neon signs. In these solitary single frames, night’s blackness vignettes these stolen illuminated interludes cradling them in its steady embrace.

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St. Mark’s Place brownstone covered in lush ivy. East Village, New York City.

Before the leaves begin their gravity-fettered migration to the ground, the sun engages in one last embrace with the foliage ensconced shadows.

In these sun-soaked shadows, the leaves shiver while dreaming of winter’s frigid kiss waltzing slowly with the ominous brisk breeze before they are swept off their branches like young lovers swept off their feet by the newness of each other.

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Red fire escape illuminated by sunlight. East Village, New York City.

When the sun dips feverishly close to the horizon, there is an hour or two when even the most ordinary of scenes become extraordinary. The day’s harsh light collapses into shards of warmth and radiance and windows open their eyes wide open reflecting the sun’s last lusty overtures.

It’s during these last moments that buildings soak in the afterglow of the sun’s long lingering kiss and shadows inch closer and closer to these alluring shards of radiance hoping to bask in the sun’s sensual embrace.

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Vivienne Gucwa’s photography in a gallery showing at Plush NYC on October 6th 2011. Mars Bar Retrospective.

Last night I got to attend a gallery showing event where seven of my photos along with photos from four other photographers were displayed. It was a Mars Bar Retrospective featuring photos of the interior, exterior and personalities that haunted this legendary and now closed bar in the East Village. The gallery showing was hosted by Plush NYC who also handled all of the planning, promoting and curation. It was a spectacular night and I am pretty sure I couldn’t stop smiling the entire time I was there. I am extremely grateful for Plush NYC who not only found me and contacted me about doing this showing but also for putting together a wonderfully curated and inspiring gallery event.

If you are interested in seeing quite a few photos of me smiling like crazy in front of my photos last night as well as the seven photos that were on display, go here:

Vivienne Gucwa’s photography at the Plush NYC Gallery Show on October 6th 2011

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I have written many times about Mars Bar and what its closing meant to many people. The upset over its closing represented the loss of something greater for lower Manhattan. You can read an article I wrote about Mars Bar last winter which features (more journalistic style) photos along with all of my thoughts about its closing here: A Look Inside Mars Bar - the EV’s Legendary Dive Bar . I also did a photo-essay for the NY Times - East Village section about the art of Mars Bar which you can view here: Viewfinder | The Art of Mars Bar.

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Street corner and ode to Bob Arihood. Alphabet City. East Village, New York City.

Autumn weekends are draped in a chilled warmth down in the East Village and on the Lower East Side. Trees hang their colorful limbs lazily over the multitudes of people who unwrap their weekend day slowly and casually. The East Village has changed so much over the last few decades but sometimes on days like this one glimpses of its charm radiate so brightly that it is almost impossible not to smile.

Yesterday, one of the East Village’s (and really New York City’s) most brilliant photographers died. His name was Bob Arihood. He was the last of a dying breed.. He covered the not-so-pretty side of the East Village taking great care to carefully document the colorful personalities who made up the mosaic of the East Village over the years. A few years back he was profiled in the NY Times: An East Village Blogger Hangs Up His Mouse and he maintained two blogs: Nadie Se Conoce and Neither More Nor Less.

I had the pleasure of meeting him for the very first time after being a long time admirer of his work at a burlesque birthday party for Ray, the owner of Ray’s Candy Store in the East Village last winter. I will never forget the first five minutes of conversation with him. He asked me where I grew up in New York City and I said “Queens!” and he looked at me, smiled wryly and said “Oh, Queens. They have an entirely different currency in those parts.” We both laughed and talked about cameras, the changing face of the East Village and his work. After that, I ran into him quite a few times in and around Tompkins Square Park, at Ray’s Candy Store and on East fourth street. He was always kind, always had time to talk, was an incredible listener and had the biggest heart of anyone I have known. His humility was one of his most stunning characteristics. In fact, he was almost embarrassed that he had made it into the NY Times.

The last time I saw him and spoke to him was at the beginning of summer. It was a bittersweet conversation. He spoke to me about wanting to find a way to convert footage he had of the East Village in the early 1970s to a format that would be viewable online and he said something that has been haunting me ever since I found out that he passed away yesterday.

We were talking about how he managed to get the incredible photos of people that he had captured over the years and he spoke about being an admirer of Arthur Fellig (Weegee) for many years and that he had spent years befriending and getting close with many of the gangs, vagrants and fringe element in the East Village just so that they would be comfortable enough to let him into their circles and photograph them. That was what made him so unique. He had a distinct compassion for those who society often overlooks. He would sometimes take in the junkies, homeless and other lost souls who populated the East Village and give them food and the ability to take a warm shower. Sometimes he would listen to police radio to try to assess if anyone he knew from those circles were freshly involved in altercations (ala Weegee).

He spoke with sadness about not being fast enough to catch these things due to his increasingly poor health and how he was considering a car at some point. It was then that he leaned in and said softly to me “It feels like life is passing me by.” Something about that moment struck me with incredible sadness. I put my hand on his shoulder and just nodded because sometimes words just aren’t enough.

Whenever I spoke about him I would tell people that he was one of the people who deserved a documentary. I still feel that way. He was and remains a legend. It’s hard to believe he is gone but he will never be forgotten.

You can view the announcement of his passing as well as a beautiful write-up of him here on (only) one of the East Village’s best blogs: RIP Bob Arihood

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Ryan Adams - Lucky Now single cover. Photo by Vivienne Gucwa (me!)

Blizzard in the East Village, New York City.

I have some incredible news to share. I was contacted by Ryan Adam’s independent music label a couple of months ago regarding commercial usage of one of my photos from this past winter for the cover of Ryan Adam’s latest single called “Lucky Now” (shown here in this post). I happily agreed!

The single is off Ryan Adam’s upcoming album called “Ashes & Fire”. You can view the cover to the single with my photo on it as well as listen to the single on Ryan Adam’s official Facebook page here:

Ryan Adams - Lucky Now

It’s impossible to articulate how over the moon I am about this! I am extremely grateful to Ryan Adams for using my photo for this particular single.

The photo is special to me because it was taken during the peak of a very rough blizzard last winter which I ventured out in specifically with the intent of capturing my neighborhood wrapped in the embrace of a beautiful storm. The blizzard produced wind gusts of 55+ mph and ended up blanketing New York City in 20 inches of snow. It was taken in the East Village on one of my favorite streets in the winter. I love winter storms down here on the Lower East Side. It’s nearly impossible to keep me inside when the world is transformed into a wild snow-globe. There is nothing quite like New York City covered in freshly fallen snow.

I have created an album over at my Google Plus profile which shows the original photo along with the album cover (shown in this post):

Ryan Adams - Lucky Now single cover with photography by Vivienne Gucwa

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Artists at the Howl Festival 2011. Tompkins Square Park. East Village, New York City.

I went through some of my photos from various street festivals, parades and events that I took this year and came across this photo from the Howl Festival which took place in June close to where I live. It’s one of my favorite photos that I captured during that event for several complex reasons having to do with a shift in my own perspectives toward street photography and exploration of my photographic process.

I wrote briefly about my feelings regarding street photography here in this post back in July. While street photography not my main focus at all, it’s interesting to view these photos now because they conjure up an almost tangible change in perspective.

I try to not deeply analyze my own shots as I take them. I think this stems from my first foray into college back in my early 20s (which isn’t so long ago but feels like several lifetimes away at this point!). I initially went to FIT and after becoming disillusioned with the fashion industry (my leanings were more towards art) I transferred to a local city college to pursue art history. I had very little direction in terms of where I wanted to go with my schooling and I ended up dropping out after several semesters since I was in dire financial straits due to being entirely on my own. The few semesters of art history classes that I did end up taking fascinated me since I found that I loved the analytic process. I actually looked forward to the tests in each class which were elaborate writing assignments. In retrospect, I think I enjoyed the writing and history aspect the most. However, these classes definitely made me think deeply about how artists approach their work.

When I started delving into photography nearly a decade after this short foray into art history, I found it really interesting that my own process of taking photos ended up involving a very stream of consciousness approach. I shoot with a certain abandon. To this day, I don’t over-think shots possibly out of a subconscious avoidance of allowing what I photograph to get too mired in analysis (latent trauma from over-analysis in art history classes?). The ironic part of this is that it’s impossible not to let this analysis occur since I love writing and exploring emotions via photography. I have found that it’s in the post-processing process that I am most shocked at what I manage to capture in terms of what the photos end up conjuring up in terms of emotion, nostalgia and overarching themes.

I started thinking a lot about this after a discussion started on one of my recent photos over on Google Plus here: City Hall Fountain at Dusk. I was asked a series of thought-provoking questions by Max McNally: “Do you ever take it for granted when you capture amazing pictures like this? Or do you still, from time to time, gaze totally enraptured by your own creations? Do you think that you see the world a uniquely wondrous perspective or is it only when you and camera play together that the real magic happens?” which made me recollect much of the musings in this post considering my own history and approach to photography. My answer was: ” I think that photography fills an enormous void in that before photography, I would attempt to write about things that filled me with wonder but it always seemed inadequate. It was only when I started taking photos that I finally felt I could properly capture and convey what I was striving to convey all along. I wish I had discovered photography earlier! ”

While what I answered was certainly one part of the answer, I think it’s also an insufficient answer in some respects after revisiting it due to the context of this post. It’s quite possibly a series of questions that could take a lifetime to answer. Every artist views the world with a unique perspective but it’s hard to encapsulate one’s own view of how they approach the world via their own artistic expression. I do sometimes have moments where I view images I have taken and I am totally gob-smacked because in the moment that I took those images, I didn’t fully realize the full potential of what I captured. It’s a hard thing to admit and write about because there is an element of inner-analysis and an air of effortlessness that comes off when that confession is put into writing. I sometimes don’t know if it is my own lack of formal training in photography or how I approach the process of capturing images in such a fast, seamless fashion that makes me feel incredibly insecure about sharing my own process. I know I will always be learning, of course, but this entire experience, whether it be whenever a commercial client approaches me for usage of my photos or when people purchase my prints to name a few examples, often proverbially knocks me off my feet, so to speak.

How does this all relate to this photo? Well, I realized when I shot this particular festival that I was completely engrossed in the process of capturing artists engaged in their own artistic processes. There is a flow state that occurs when someone engages in what they love whether it be writing, dancing, photography, painting, drawing, making music or really anything that inspires total passion. The rest of the world disappears and all that exists is whatever someone is engaged in. It’s a beautiful feeling to experience but it’s also intriguing to witness. The two artists in this photo were completely wrapped up in the moment individually and yet totally in sync with each other in respect to the designs they were painting on the same mural. I was completely entranced by watching them. There is a definite magic in capturing people in moments that are usually private and treasured. It wasn’t until I took this set of photos for this festival and subsequent ones that I truly started to appreciate street photography in that regard. I couldn’t be more grateful to have had this epiphany.

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Ivy covered buildings framed by trees. The New York City Marble Cemetery. East Village, New York City.

The New York City Marble Cemetery is open only twice a year but can be viewed from outside year round. It was founded in 1831 and is a New York City landmark as well as a part of the National Historic Register of Historic Places. Its history is colorful (no pun intended) involving a yellow fever outbreak in 1830 and the usage of marble underground burial plots to extinguish city resident’s fears of catching yellow fever from freshly buried dead in non-marble plots.

What I love the most about this part of the East Village on 2nd street is how lush it is in the spring and summer months. The grounds contain a number of trees and one of the apartments that line the cemetery is almost completely covered in ivy. It’s a really beautiful and peaceful spot.

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*This is a re-post from two months ago for the benefit of the audience on Google Plus.

Mars Bar interior. We are watching you. East Village, New York City.

Mars Bar closed its doors for the last time yesterday. I guess I should say it was closed down by the DOH even though it was going to close for good by the end of the summer in preparation of demolition to make way for yet another boring luxury glass condo.

I have already written extensively about Mars Bar in my article for NearSay here: A Look Inside Mars Bar - The East Village’s Legendary Dive Bar, for the NY Times - East Village Local section here: Viewfinder - The Art of Mars Bar and on this site.

This particular image is from a visit this past February when I took a ton of interior shots of the infamous bathrooms and art covering the walls. I love this one the best.

It was a cold winter day and Mars Bar was dimly lit with the exception of the reddish light in this image and some daylight streaming through the graffiti-strewn windows. The jukebox was loud and the few regulars who were there were happily talking to each other. It’s my favorite way to remember Mars Bar as the last holdout of grit in a lower Manhattan that is being bulldozed and changing at the speed of light. In retrospect, it was the calm before the storm.

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The Creative Little Garden. Alphabet City. East Village, New York City.

The community gardens of the East Village and Lower East Side are some of my favorite little spots in Manhattan. This particular garden is called The Creative Little Garden and it is located in Alphabet City in the East Village.

The Creative Little Garden started out as a tenement building in the early part of the 20th century. Many buildings that occupied the same block became abandoned in the 1950s and 1960s and in the early 1970s, the building that occupied the site where this lovely garden sits today was demolished. In 1982, the Creative Little Garden was created and it has been serving the community ever since.

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