NY Through the Lens - New York City Photography

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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New York City at night. St.Mark’s Place. East Village.

When the days concede to night in the winter, there is a certain comfort in the glow of neon city lights.

This particular view is of St. Mark’s Place in the East Village. The giant cow on the right belongs to the restaurant Mark (“We grind our own beef”) and the colorful neon signs belong to Andromeda - a tattoo and piercing establishment that merged with the West Village’s Cassioppia a few years back.

The sign that is partially concealed on the left under the tree branches (with shoes hanging off of them!) is Rockit Scientist Records which was a great records store that dated back to the mid 1990s when the East Village was home to far more records stores and had a more eclectic vibe.

There is a coldness to neon that is eclipsed by a peculiar sort of warmth when the windchill dips into the single digits. It’s a sign of life. People tend to huddle under the glow of the lights in the winter with a frequency that isn’t seen as much in warmer months as if they are city moths drawn to the glowing promise of warmth.

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Since people have asked, I am going to include the camera/lens combos I used for each photo on this blog from this point on (or at least I will try!). This was taken with the Sony a99 and my 35mm lens.

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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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Rain in the afternoon. Flatiron District. Midtown, New York City.

As rain falls onto the city’s buildings, a sea of umbrellas washes up to sidewalk shores as streets glisten with light and promise.

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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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Buy “Rain - Flatiron District - New York City” Prints here, My mobile photography for sale here, My regular photography for sale here, email me, or ask for help.

Summer sunlight on the Lower East Side. New York City.

It’s a gorgeous, hot summer day today. This was taken a little less than an hour ago here on the Lower East Side. The sunlight was so intense on what are some of my favorite buildings here in the neighborhood.

For everyone celebrating, have a very happy and safe Fourth of July!

This 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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Buy “Summer Sunlight - Lower East Side - New York City” Prints here, My mobile photography for sale here, My regular photography for sale here, email me, or ask for help.

Man with a newspaper on Rivington Street. Lower East Side, New York City.

There are moments that seem as if they have been transported from an entirely different era right into the heart of today. This is one of them. The gentleman sitting here in his three piece suit and fedora was casually enjoying his newspaper while sitting next to a few closed storefronts on a rather moody, overcast day.

When I first moved to this neighborhood a few years ago, I noted the Botánica which was open for a few hours every day. A few of the neighbors in my apartment building who have lived here on the Lower East Side for decades would frequent the Botánica on a weekly basis. I have noticed that it no longer appears to be open which saddens me. I am unsure if the closure is permanent or merely temporary but I do still wonder where my older neighbors go for their Botánica needs.

A botánica is a retail store that sells folk medicine, religious candles and statuary, amulets, and other products regarded as magical or as alternative medicine. Some botánicas also carry incense, perfumes and oils. While these stores are common in many Hispanic American countries and communities of Latino people elsewhere botánicas can also be found in any United States city that has a sizable Latino/a population, particularly those with ties to the Caribbean.

The name botánica is Spanish and translates as “botany” or “plant” store, referring to these establishments’ function as dispensaries of medicinal herbs. Medicinal herbs may be sold dried or fresh, prepackaged or in bulk. The stores almost always feature a variety of implements endemic to Roman Catholic religious practice such as rosary beads, holy water, and images of saints. In addition, most have products associated with other spiritual practices such as candomblé, curanderismo, espiritismo, macumba and santería. Source

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This is my weekly 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. Additionally, you can view my phone photography for sale here.

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Buy ” New York City - Lower East Side” Prints here, My mobile photography for sale here, My regular photography for sale here, email me, or ask for help.

Rainy day. Greenwich Village, New York City.

Every drop of rain paints the city with an otherworldly light: tiny illuminated universes cast their glow onto the city with every luminous splatter.

Wet earth in the form of darkened concrete springs forth new life in the form of urban wanderers who migrate quickly from one patch of earth to another as their wet reflections echo their movements.

And after the day has unleashed its deluge of light, the city soaks in the infused-afterglow.

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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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Pell Street, Chinatown in the rain. New York City.

Under the weight of the sky’s tears streets glisten reflecting the gleam in the eye of the clouds overhead. The day washes away slowly: its sorrows and joys melt into puddles under-foot.

It’s on these sorts of evenings that all of the cares in the world pale in comparison to the momentary haze that engulfs the city: a sultry, sorrowful, sedate embrace.

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New York City street at night. Tribeca.

These city streets: at night they pulsate through our dreams branching out like dendrites sending their synaptic transmissions into our collective memory.

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Open fire hydrant. Summer in the city. Lower East Side, New York City.

In the summer New York City yields to the heat: its essence melts like soft wax. At night, the air rests above the concrete like the bated breath of a lover anticipating a proclamation of love.

Ambient light twinkles above the inferior mirages left over from remnants of sun-beaten streets and fire hydrants spray their cool water onto the street, each stream cutting through the stillness with the greatest of ease.

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Happy Halloween. Balloons. Lower East Side, New York City.

Sometimes there are moments that occur that are so whimsical and perfect for the time of year that it makes you stop dead in your tracks and smile the widest smile that you can accommodate. This was one of those moments.

I was walking around my neighborhood and a man was standing perfectly still with a gaggle of black balloons the day before Halloween. In typical New York City fashion, passerbys hardly even blinked an eye. They sort of resembled a very large bunch of grapes. I am sure they were for a Halloween event. At least I would like to imagine they were.

Happy Halloween everyone!

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Doyers Street illuminated by the sun. Chinatown, New York City.

Out of the way streets tell a wealth of tales. The bright afternoon sun beats down on old decaying walls and fire escapes creating elongated shadows that seem to stretch indefinitely. If the well-worn awnings could talk, just think of the secrets they would reveal.

This is one of my favorite streets in Lower Manhattan. It’s Doyers Street located in Chinatown. I have always considered it more of an alley. It’s a peculiar street that winds and curves around tucking itself away from the rest of Chinatown. At only around 200 feet long, Doyers Street runs from Pell Street to Chatham Square. It’s home to very old tenements and long-standing businesses like The Nom Wah Tea Parlor which opened in 1927.

In the early 20th century the curve in the street was known as “the Bloody Angle” because of a plethora of violent acts carried out by Chinatown gangs. The expression ‘hatchet man’ is said to have come from this era and these violent acts which often included hatchets. While the street is not bloody or violent today, it’s been used in a variety of films and is definitely worth a visit.

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