NY Through the Lens - New York City Photography

Bare branches against a winter sky. Socrates Sculpture Park. Astoria, Queens. New York City.

Stuck somewhere between the heart and lips pushed down by the echoes of memory echoes loss: the mirror reflection of connection.

We spend our lives shedding pieces of ourselves: molted hopes and dreams that slough off into the thoughts of everyone we meet like stardust falling to the Earth from distant stars.

These are the pieces we hold on to: the pieces that are part of us that can never be put back into the same place again after they dissolve into nothing.

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Buy “Winter’s Bare Branches - Holding On” Prints here, email me, or ask for help.

The New York City skyline featuring the Chrysler Building. Midtown.

I have always been partial to late summer skyline views here in New York City.

The haze that hangs over the horizon like a misty veil seems to lend a special sort of immediacy to the skyscrapers that assert themselves in the foreground.

The Chrysler Building, New York City’s art-deco masterpiece of architecture, always looks so regal positioned in front of the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge (also known as the 59th Street Bridge). Four smokestacks playfully draw the eye towards the rest of Queens that sprawls out in the distance towards the fading horizon.

It’s as if the sky is locked in an embrace with the rest of the city while the skyscrapers that make up the midtown Manhattan skyline are enraptured and wrapped up in their own special moment with the Chrysler Building.

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

The “Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge” also known as the 59th Street Bridge. Midtown, New York City.

I wanted to sincerely thank everyone for all of the wonderful interaction and encouragement that has been sent my way here. One of my greatest joys in this world comes from sharing my thoughts and views regarding the city I love so much via my writing and photography. It’s been truly heart-warming to know that people have been enjoying what I have been sharing. I read every single comment, note and message and I try to respond to all of them. While sometimes I am late with my responses (especially recently since I am preparing to start my last semester of school in 2 days), I really appreciate the feedback.

A short interview I did for the website ‘Women of Google Plus’ went up yesterday. The website is curated by Lynette Young and it started out as a “way to discover brilliant women using Google+. ” Over time, the website “has evolved into a destination to learn, share and explore what it takes to thrive on social networking platforms both personally and professionally”. You can check out my interview here: Women of Google Plus: Vivienne Gucwa . I really love reading through all of the interviews and have found many inspiring people to add to my various circles on there. It’s such a great resource to have.

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This particular photo holds a special place in my heart. It was taken back in April of 2010 and the camera I had been using for months was dying a slow death. I would take photos and they would come out completely over-exposed no matter what I did or would have so much noise that it was virtually impossible to fix in post-processing. I didn’t have money to invest in a new camera and so I would carry my little dying camera around hoping that the little naps I would give it between shots would somehow result in a miracle. In retrospect, it was quite amusing since every photo was a total gamble in terms of the results. I had a routine: I would take a photo, often scowl at what the camera captured, turn the camera off for 5 minutes and then turn it back on and hope that the next photo would somehow reflect what I was actually seeing and not turn the subsequent shot into a soupy, grainy mess.

It was a cold day, the type of spring day that revels in the icy touch of winter. I had walked down to 59th street from East Harlem via the FDR Drive pedestrian walkway resigning myself to the fact that my camera was on its last legs. As I sat in Sutton Place Park watching the sun dip down in the sky while dancing its rays across the bridge, I clasped my camera tightly and thought to myself “If I could just get a shot of this beautiful light, I will be happy”. I took 5 shots of the bridge and my camera completely died.

Despite the dramatic ending to my camera that day, I love how the shots came out. There is a saturated quality to the tones in this image that remind me a lot of certain types of film. I have taken many photos of this bridge from various angles since that day but this still remains one of my favorite renderings of it.

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Buy “The Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge - New York City” Posters and Prints here, View my store, email me, or ask for help.

New York City skyscrapers and an infinite view looking out from the top of Rockefeller Center.

This view is looking north towards the borough of Queens which sits directly across the river from the skyscrapers in the foreground.

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You can now also purchase my photography on a wide variety of merchandise. To view all of these New York City gifts and products at my store, click here.