NY Through the Lens - New York City Photography

Rain. New York City. Greenwich Village.

When the sky opens up over the city, urban wanderers glide over the surface of streets slick with shadowy memory.

And every drop of rain holds the world in its slippery grasp.

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Recently, someone who saw this same photo in black and white inquired if I also had the image available in color. Since I shoot in color and convert my color photos to black and white after the fact (with a few exceptions), I went through my library and found my color rendition of this scene. I was struck with how the photo evoked a different set of emotions when viewing it in color. I have come to love it in black and white to such an extent that my memory of the scene as it occurred also plays out in my mind in black and white. However, I remember the initial appeal of this candid moment was the strong bursts of color against the winter-bare trees. The day was bitterly cold: the type of damp cold that seeps down to the bone and in one short moment, the street erupted with color. It was such a fleeting moment but it created such a spark.

On a related note, I read an interesting essay by Joel Meyerwitz a few days ago on the New York Times Lens Blog called A Question of Colors - Answered. Meyerwitz is part of a current exhibition in London which compares some of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s black and white images with work by other noted photographers who have been influenced by him but have chosen to work in color for a large part of their photography careers. The curator of this particular exhibition states that: “This exhibition will show how Henri Cartier-Bresson, in spite of his skeptical attitude regarding the artistic value of colour photography, nevertheless exerted a powerful influence over photographers who took up the new medium and who were determined to put a personal stamp on it. In effect, his criticisms of colour spurred on a new generation, determined to overcome the obstacles and prove him wrong.”

It’s interesting to me that color photography inhabits a more defensive realm than black and white photography especially when it comes to street photography. I think that both have different psychological effects on the viewer and both can be just as valid in terms of having artistic value. However, it’s definitely not a simple debate.

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Autumn. New York City. Above Union Square.

On cloudy days in autumn, the trees stick out from the ground below like paintbrushes heavy with memories of the sun’s embrace.

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I love this view of Union Square Park looking towards the Empire State Building and the beautiful skyscrapers in midtown Manhattan. It’s particularly gorgeous in the autumn when the trees change color before descending gracefully to the ground.

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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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Washington Mews on a cloudy day. Greenwich Village, New York City.

There are streets that I revisit with regularity. These streets seem to call me back again and again. Tucked away and nearly hidden, they are treasure chests that open to reveal a wealth of warm, new feelings with every passing season. I used to come to this particular street quite a bit but it wasn’t until a year or so ago that I learned about its history.

The street sits on land that in the 18th century was part of a large farm that contained private stables used by the families of men such as nineteenth century architect Richard Morris Hunt, John Taylor Johnston who was the founding president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art , and Pierre Lorillard who was a prominent American tobacco manufacturer.

In the first half of the 20th century, a community of about 200 painters and sculptors flourished on this particular street and another adjoining street in the area. In 1903, a reporter for the New York Tribune wrote: “One finds a strange mixture of bales of hay and enormous blocks of marble, boxes of plaster and barrels of oats littering the roadways. Truckmen in greasy jumpers touch elbows now and then with the sculptors in their clay spattered working garb.”

One of the more prominent artists who had a studio on this beautiful street was Edward Hopper. Edward Hopper lived close to Washington Mews at 3 Washington Square starting in December 1913 until his death in 1967.

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George Takei in a Boy Scout outfit at the 2012 NYC Pride Parade. Greenwich Village.

I had every intention of making a real post about today’s Pride Parade in New York City (also known as the Heritage of Pride March) but really, I think this photo I took of George Takei flashing the Vulcan salute while in a Boy Scout uniform trumps anything else I would have posted.

You can view the full set of photos from today’s parade here in my Flickr set:

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If you are curious about why George Takei is in a Boy Scout uniform (which he looks very snazzy in, I might add, it’s so Takei), you can read about it here: George Takei To Take Stand Against Scouts’ Anti-Gay Ban With GLAAD, Jennifer Tyrrell at NYC Pride.

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Washington Square Park fountain at night in the summer. New York City.

The inherent romance that pulses through the city at night grows stronger in the summer.

Lamp posts and surfaces weary from the noonday sun glisten in the moonlight while night breezes carry the whispers of lovers along slowly and deliberately.

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Summer on Perry Street. Greenwich Village, New York City

On summer days like this, the bright summer sun barely cuts through the branches of trees canopies that line the street while brownstones and bicycles revel in the cool shade.

Some people flee the city in the summer, preferring cooler climates free of hot cement. For me, there is nothing that comes close to summer in the city.

It’s true that often the air is held captive by the high heat and the sun scorches the pavement but when a breeze is allowed free rein to fly through the trees, something magical happens.

Streets breathe a sigh of relief and warm tones of muted sunlight cast upon buildings languishing in the shade inspire smiles of contentment.

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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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Afternoon sunlight on fire escapes. Greenwich Village, New York City.

The afternoon yawns with its mouth full of sunlight before it slips into the shadows of evening.

Fire escapes catch the sun’s gleam: staircases for dreamers propelling dreams skyward.

And the trees bow graciously in the lingering glow of sweet sunlight: courteous hosts beckoning wanderers to bask in the shared glow and warmth of the city.

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Rain in Greenwich Village, New York City.

In dreams memories take on the hues of nostalgia: faded hues made rich with meaning that are etched into the dreamscapes that play themselves against our eyelids each night.

Memory-tones diffused by the tear-in-the eye and lump-in-the throat feeling of familiarity synthesize with overwhelming feelings of connection with the past as it dilutes itself into the present.

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Black eyed Susans (yellow flowers) at night. Washington Square Park. Greeenwich Village, New York City,

There is a dramatic quality to fragile petals illuminated by only the faint glow of a nearby street lamp. This particular photo is of a solitary Black Eyed Susan in Washington Square Park. I am quite fond of this particular patch of yellow flowers during the day but they are especially gorgeous late at night.

Rudbeckia hirta, the Black-eyed Susan, with the other common names of: Brown-eyed Susan, Blackiehead, Brown Betty,Yellow Daisy, and Yellow Ox-eye Daisy is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is an upright annual (sometimes biennial or perennial) native to most of North America, and is one of a number of plants with the common name Black-eyed Susan with flowers having dark purplish brown centers. Black-eyed Susans can be established, like most other wildflowers, simply by spreading seeds throughout a designated area. They are able to reseed themselves after the first season. Source

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Perry Street. Greenwich Village, New York City

On summer days like this, the bright summer sun barely cuts through the branches of trees canopies that line the street while brownstones and bicycles revel in the cool shade. Some people flee the city in the summer, preferring cooler climates free of hot cement. For me, there is nothing that comes close to summer in the city.

It’s true that often the air is held captive by the high heat and the sun scorches the pavement but when a breeze is allowed free reign to fly through the trees, something magical happens. Streets breathe a sigh of relief and warm tones of muted sunlight cast upon buildings languishing in the shade inspire smiles of contentment.

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

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Buy “Summer in Greenwich Village” Posters and Prints here, View my store, email me, or ask for help.

Cafe Reggio at night. Greenwich Village, New York City

Cafe Reggio has an intriguing history. It’s one of Greenwich Village’s oldest cafes dating back to 1927. Additionally, its original owner, Domenico Parisi, introduced cappuccino to the American masses in the 1930s by way of an automatic espresso machine which was the first of its kind. While Italy had been enjoying cappuccino for quite some time, it wasn’t enjoyed in America prior to Parisi. The original machine still sits in the cafe against the back wall.

Cafe Reggio also boasts quite an intriguing collection of antiques and artwork. As you sip your caffeinated drink of choice you can gaze at artwork “which dates back to the Italian Renaissance period. A dramatic 16th century painting from the school of Caravaggio and an antique bench which once belonged to the Medici family bearing the Florentine crest of the illustrious Medici family are among the works that impart a feeling of grace and warmth to Caffe Reggio.” - Source

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Buy “Cafe Reggio” Posters and Prints here, Other versions of this print with writing and various borders can be viewed here (any of them can be customized to have whatever background you desire): “Cafe Reggio” with Black Border, “Cafe Reggio” with White Border, “Cafe Reggio” with Grey Border, View my store, email me, or ask for help.