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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View “New York City - Rain and Wet Sidewalks” in my photography portfolio here, email me, or ask for help.

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

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

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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Buy “Rain - New York City - Greenwich Village - Washington Square” Posters and Prints here, View my store, email me, or ask for help.