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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New York by Gehry in black and white. Financial District, New York City.

This is one of my favorite ‘newer’ New York City skyscrapers. It is located in the Financial District at 8 Spruce Street. There is just something extraordinarily grandiose about New York by Gehry (designed by Frank Gehry). It’s the tallest residential skyscraper in North America currently standing at 76 stories high.

When you stand at its base, it’s as if its top scrapes delicately across the surface of the sky.

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This photo was taken with my phone. I am @newyorklens on Instagram (view my feed here). Check out my other Instagram posts made to this blog here. You can check out all of my Instagram photos on Flickr here. Additionally, you can view my phone photography for sale here.

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

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My mobile photography for sale here, My regular photography for sale here, email me, or ask for help.

Chinatown rooftop graffiti and the Brooklyn Bridge. New York City

The sun streams across the city in the evening touching every layer of the city with its warmth.

And the streets, buildings and bridges cling to its light with soft ferocity hoping to keep it from leaving the sky.

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Buy “Rooftop Graffiti in Chinatown Looking Towards the Brooklyn Bridge - New York City” Prints here, email me, or ask for help.

Skyscrapers. Financial District, New York City.

When I was very young, I remember learning about vast mountain ranges that existed in what seemed like universes beyond New York City. I would regale myself with images of these towering feats of nature trying to imagine what it was like to come in contact with such powerful natural wonders. I used to think to myself “There is nothing like this here in the city, all we have are buildings.”

It wasn’t until my teens when I lived in New Mexico for a little over a year and more specifically when I got to experience the majesty of Taos that I was able to understand how infinitely small everything seems in comparison to the vastness of the world.

And yet, while I was in school there in Albuquerque, other students would ask me daily to tell them what it was like to live amongst buildings that soared to the sky.

It never occurred to me before that time that the man-made feats of architecture that I viewed on a regular basis were for these students what the images of mountain ranges were to me before I had the experience of seeing mountains with my own eyes.

When I moved back to New York City, I carried that new knowledge with me like a precious gift, tucking it away for safe-keeping.

And it wasn’t until I discovered photography, that I took that knowledge out from where I tucked it away for many years and started to view my own city with new eyes.

There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t recall the time when I realized that New York City is its own man-made land of enchantment.

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Buy “Enchantment - Skyscrapers - Financial District - New York City” Prints here, email me, or ask for help.

Glass skyscraper reflecting a beautiful blue sky and clouds. Tribeca,New York City.

For all my complaints about glass buildings rising in the place of other more ornate and classic works of architecture, I will say that if you find yourself looking up at the newer glass buildings on a beautiful day, the views are beautiful. Blue skies and clouds pour onto the glass like a liquid dream emulsion.

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The Metropolitan Life Tower skybridge and the Metropolitan North Building. Midtown, New York City.

In mythology and religion, the concept of the axis mundi is a persistent enduring one. Also known as the world axis, columna ceruli and world pillar, it serves as the world’s central focus, a spot that symbolizes the connection between heaven and earth. Different cultures represent the axis mundi through various symbology including mountains, trees, columns of smoke or even via human manufacture which includes towers, totem poles, pillars and spires. The proximity of the structure to heaven carries implications that can either be interpreted in a religious way such as with temples, churches and pagodas or in a secular way with obelisks, lighthouses, rockets and skyscrapers.

However, there is a lot of controversy regarding its modern expression and whether or not the concept can be applied in a purely secular way with architecture. One fascinating theory links the axis mundi to space travel where astronauts are the embodiment of the age-old quest for knowledge utilizing rockets to connect them to the heavens. Many disparate theories also exist that reflect on the placement of clusters of skyscrapers in the centers and financial districts of cities (like New York City) and whether or not the placement of these structures specifically evokes the concept of axis mundi. It’s interesting to ponder, that’s for sure.

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Buy “The Metropolitan Life Building Skyway Bridge” Posters and Prints here, View my store, email me, or ask for help.

Sunset over the Wonder Wheel. Coney Island, Brooklyn. New York City.

Buy “Coney Island Sunset at the Wonder Wheel” Posters and Prints here, View my store, email me, or ask for help.

Sometimes there is nothing better than a beach sunset at Coney Island overlooking the Wonder Wheel in silhouette.

The Manhattan Bridge and the New York City skyline in black and white. New York City.

Buy “Manhattan Bridge” Posters and Prints here, View my store, email me, or ask for help.

“…To him, no matter what the season was, this was still a town that existed in black and white and pulsated to the great tunes of George Gershwin. ” - *

* From one of the greatest opening scenes/montages in cinema history. I still get a lump in my throat when I watch the beginning of this film every time without fail. It’s pure magic and awe for almost 4 minutes:

Opening sequence for Manhattan

The Empire State Building and the towers of 4 Park Avenue rising above birds in flight. Midtown, New York City.

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You can now also purchase my photography on a wide variety of merchandise (t-shirts, magnets, postcards, iPhone/iPad cases, posters, the list goes on). To view all of these New York City gifts and products at my store, click here.

Soho, New York City

A new gallery page for my New York City posters is also published on Squidoo. It’s called New York City Posters by NY Through The Lens. Check it out!

The Empire State Building. Midtown, New York City.

One of my favorite views of Midtown is actually from my own neighborhood, the Lower East Side. I love the variety of buildings that frame the Empire State Building from this particular perspective. The Spring trees are a nice touch too! :)

You can now also purchase my photography on a wide variety of merchandise (t-shirts, magnets, postcards, iPhone/iPad cases, posters, the list goes on). To view all of these New York City gifts and products at my store, click here.

To purchase this as a print/card here on Tumblr simply click below the photo here.

The Benjamin Hotel. Midtown, New York City.

You can now also purchase my photography on a wide variety of merchandise (t-shirts, magnets, postcards, iPhone/iPad cases, posters, the list goes on). To view all of these New York City gifts and products at my store, click here.

To purchase this as a print/card here on Tumblr simply click below the photo here. View this photo on Flickr here.

Financial District, Manhattan.

To purchase this photo as a print/card simply click the links below the photo here. To view additional sizes for this photo on Flickr, click here.

Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Possibility.

To purchase this photo as a print/card simply click the links below the photo here. To view additional sizes for this photo on Flickr, click here.

Chinatown, Manhattan.

(Clicking through the photo will take you to where it is located on Flickr where you can see larger versions and/or more information.)

Regarding the new ‘explore’ feature: As a photographer on Tumblr who features photography of New York City, none of my photos fit into any of the tagging categories currently in Explore. I find this a bit odd considering that Tumblr has tons of people who are interested in city photography. Currently the only Explore tags related to photography are ‘landscape’, ‘black and white’, ‘film’ and ‘portrait’. It’s astonishing that ‘photography’, ‘city’, ‘cityscape’, ‘new york city’, ‘nyc’ or even ‘digital photography’ aren’t up there. It’s also odd that ‘architecture’ and ‘music’ which are also extremely popular topics are notably missing.

The new feature is currently excluding a large majority of original content providers (in the world of urban/city photography) and those people who absolutely love this sort of photography. Explore is now the #1 way for new people to Tumblr to find Tumblrs. You can certainly still search for specific tags (like city, nyc, urban etc..) but many people don’t typically use Tumblr in that fashion (aside from people like myself who love tags). They could tweak the Explore tags in the weeks to come but it’s puzzling that the broad, popular, relevant categories from the Directory didn’t make it to the initial major tags in Explore.