NY Through the Lens - New York City Photography

Under the Manhattan Bridge. Two Bridges - Chinatown. New York City.

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When winter shifts into spring, the light shifts too.

Stark, short afternoons that end too abruptly morph into vivid, warm afternoons that linger until the sky relents.

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This was taken on a stark, short afternoon that was only mildly flirting with spring a week or so ago before the city erupted into full-on springtime mode. This is one of my favorite parts of Chinatown: under the Manhattan Bridge.

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Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Hewes Street.

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With layers of dirt and paint under our nails from constantly peeling back the layers of this city, it’s not the stars we seek.

It’s the light that seeps through…

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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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New York City skyscrapers and streets from above. Midtown.

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When you find yourself above New York City (or perhaps any city), what really stands out are all of the layers of activity. It’s hard to completely grasp the layers when you are among them everyday. But when you change your perspective, it really shifts your understanding of the complexities of urban life.

This is a view of the entrance to the Queensboro Bridge (also known as the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, 59th Street Bridge, and Queens Bridge) and the skyscrapers of the New York City skyline in midtown Manhattan close to 59th Street on the east side. It was taken with the Sony A99 from the vantage point of the Roosevelt Island Tram, a tram that crosses over the East River from midtown Manhattan to Roosevelt Island a around 100 times a day.

Aside from the cross-section of a part of the midtown Manhattan skyline, you can also make out the pedestrian walkway of the bridge which runs alongside the busy traffic-laden vehicular section of the bridge. Above the traffic and pedestrians is the beginnings of the grand architecture that makes up the bridge itself and midtown streets and traffic snake their way through the city below the bridge.

The variety of architecture in this area of midtown is also striking when viewed from above. The lower-slung buildings sit alongside newer skyscrapers of varying heights and structure. It would be interesting to take this section and label each building according to its completion date to note the ever-evolving skyline throughout the years in relation to the bridge.

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Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge and the New York City skyline at night. Roosevelt Island view.

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When the night falls hard onto the city’s shoulders and the sky drapes a dark blanket over the skyscrapers and buildings, it’s hard to contain the effervescent charm that bursts forth after the sun has retreated.

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This is the Queensboro Bridge which is known by a few other names depending on where you are from and how long you have lived in New York City. Despite growing up in Queens, I will always think of this bridge as the 59th Street Bridge because I think I belonged to one of the few families in Queens that for whatever reason associated the bridge more with 59th Street in Manhattan. It’s also known as Queens Bridge which is a shortened form of Queensboro Bridge. Its current official name is the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, named after the now deceased former mayor of New York City who held office from the late 70s to the early 80s. He was definitely a “character” (as we say :) ).

The vantage point is from Roosevelt Island and this is the result of a 30 second exposure taken with the Sony A99. It was taken on a bitterly cold night in the beginning of March while I was having a spirited conversation with one of the Roosevelt Island security guards regarding the abandoned smallpox hospital further down the island. I tend to love to shoot long exposures alone but it was great to have the company (and quirky conversation) that night. It’s those type of moments that make me love the city: little bursts of spontaneity and brevity while watching the lights sparkle in the city’s eyes.

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New York City skyscrapers and rooftops from above. Midtown.

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This New York City skyline view was taken from the top of the Empire State Building on an absolutely gorgeous summer morning with the Sony A77. The light from the sun in the summertime is un-matched in some respects. It seems to take on a distinct golden quality as it shines through the heavy summer air that hangs languidly over the city’s rooftops.

This particular view is of the tops of the skyscrapers and buildings of midtown Manhattan facing east.

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New York City Skyline and the Chrysler Building as seen from Gantry Plaza State Park. Queens.

When clouds pull themselves over the city after sunset, the city reaches up to greet the night with stars in its eyes and a racing pulse.

And when the night reaches down to hold the city in the palm of its hands, the city’s lights spill out onto a dark sky peppering it with stars.

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There is a heady essence of myth and legend that permeates the in-between times of the day. It seems to seep out especially in the evening just after the sun has reached the horizon when the air is thick with legend. One of my favorite activities is waiting for night to fall while experiencing the deep inhale and exhale of the city. Light spills out from the buildings and pours itself onto the surface of the water and the sky while the blue of the day’s sky melts into the night’s palm.

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This was taken on a bitterly cold and windy evening at Gantry Plaza State Park in Queens with the Sony A99. The wind was whipping across the water with some ferocity and the dock was moving along with the wind gusts making even a 4 second exposure (as this is) quite a challenge. But the light and the storm clouds were magical that night and it was well worth the endless crossing of fingers hoping that the wind didn’t dance too much with the camera.

Some of the most beautiful views of the skyline are from across the East River and Queens has an impressive view of the skyline in Long Island City. When I was growing up in Queens, Long Island City was an almost entirely industrial area. It has become far more residential in recent decades and the areas that boast these views are now in high demand.

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Williamsburg Bridge pedestrian walkway. New York City.

I have been on a strange sort of journey lately when it comes to photography. And I have noticed a shift in my vision or rather a slight deepening of meaning that I am seeking when it comes to the imagery I have been consuming and capturing. I have been watching a tremendous amount of documentaries about photography and photographers trying to understand where my own peculiar sort of artistic unrest is originating from. I suspect the angst has to do with a visual tiredness and unease at the overwhelming amount of imagery that seems to be in circulation at any given moment online. I am pondering writing a series of essays on the rise of mass consumption and sharing and how it correlates to various trends in offline photography but the ideas are all still percolating.

A series that really, really touched me though is called Contacts. I devoured all of Contacts: Volume 2 - The Revival of Contemporary Photography and Contacts: Volume 3: Conceptual Photography over the course of two nights. It’s a collection of tiny vignettes that explore different photographer’s contact sheets and/or body of work while they explain or talk about their work. I think I have watched the vignette of Sarah Moon’s work set to her stream-of-consciousness description of her own inward photographic journey over a dozen times at this point (it even ended up on my “Scenes that have stuck to my ribs and clung to my heart” playlist on Youtube: the ultimate testament to it becoming a part of my consciousness permanently ;) ).

When I first watched it and listened, I could barely stop the tears from flowing because it was absolutely perfect (and even that would be an understatement):

Contacts: Volume 2 - Sarah Moon

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I had an entirely different set of thoughts I wanted to include with this image of the Williamsburg Bridge (taken with the trusty Sony A99) but I seem to have veered in a different direction perhaps because all of this has been on my mind for weeks. And that’s fine, now that I think of it, because in some ways, there couldn’t be a more fitting recent image to accompany this post.

“Time goes by. Light falls. I lose confidence. I don’t want to be a photographer anymore…

Then, all of a sudden, but not always, something changes, I can’t say why, maybe I’m just in the right place at the right time, or maybe I believe in it.

However, for a split second, I see a sparkle of beauty passing by, everything goes so quickly now within that stillness, and I’m carried away, and at last I like what I see, and I can’t stop finding it, then losing it, and all day long I keep on, because it once existed.” - Sarah Moon

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Under the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge. Midtown. New York City

I had a recurring dream when I was younger that puzzled me for years. It involved boarding a hovering bubble shaped vehicle and ascending over the skyscrapers until I was soaring under the bridges and through the cavern-like spaces of the city. It was euphoric but also terrifying at the same time. When I was older, I finally relayed the dream to someone and they laughed and asked if I had ever taken the Roosevelt Island tram when I was very young. I had no recollection of it. It prompted me to ask my mother if we had ever done such a thing and she said it was possible but she couldn’t remember a specific time that we would have done it (my mother, like me, is absolutely terrified of heights). It’s possible that my family took the tram to Roosevelt Island at some point and the experience embedded itself deep into my imagination where it mixed with other flights of fancy (pun intended) of flying through a Gotham-like city like Batman.

So, when I found myself photographing the underbelly of the 59th Street Bridge (also known as the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge or just the Queensboro Bridge) with the Sony A99 late last week, it was hard not to recall those earlier dreams and feelings they invoked while I stood there waiting for the long exposure to capture 30 seconds of what had haunted me for years. The bridge is one of my favorite ones in the city. Its architecture is distinctive when viewed from the side but I absolutely love how slick and dripping-with-sci-fi-overtones it appears when viewed from below. The bridge travels from darkness into the light of a gleaming New York City as the water below it only stirs with the occasional disruption of a boat. You can also make out the cables that the Roosevelt Island tram travels on to the right of the bridge.

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The New York City skyline in the Financial District as seen from midtown Manhattan

I love the variety of skyscrapers that make up the New York City skyline in lower Manhattan. They jut up like stalagmites from the city floor. This skyline view is usually photographed from the other side usually across the East River but this is a view of the skyline as seen from midtown Manhattan. Prominent works of architecture include New York by Gehry and the Municipal Building.

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I have been experimenting quite a bit with post-processing. Someone commented on another photo of mine that I posted recently (in a negative fashion) that it didn’t seem like my other work. I replied: “That’s the beauty of art and vision - both have the freedom to change and evolve. Without that freedom, things would remain stagnant.” I can see how my style has changed over the last 3 months or so and I am grateful to have the freedom to experiment. It’s liberating to approach every photo as a blank canvas.

This particular photo was taken with the Sony a77 which I had the pleasure of using for several months late last year. I have been working on a few different stylistic photography projects over the last month which has definitely opened up creative doors in my mind.

Life may be difficult at times but it’s art that makes everything seem worthwhile.

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The New York City Skyline and Central Park from above during sunset.

Summer evenings are when the city smolders

as the sun paints the clouds

and the night sky waits just another hour longer

to dance with the last remnants of the day.

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This is a view of the skyscrapers of midtown Manhattan and Central Park from above looking north towards upper Manhattan. I took this at the end of August on a gorgeous, sweltering evening. I made it up to the top deck of Top of the Rock (30 Rock) just as this spectacular sunset was making its way across the sky.

It’s hard not to feel overcome with emotion when the summer sky puts on one of its late summer sunset shows. When it happens, the city is bathed in an other-worldly glow as the lights in the buildings twinkle on like stars and the sky and the impossible all seem to melt away into an infinite horizon full of endless possibility.

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The New York City skyline in midtown Manhattan at sunset.

Late summer and early autumn sunsets in New York City are intensely beautiful. The city seems to cling to every bit of sunlight through a haze that sleepily hangs low over the urban waterfront. This was taken near the end of a four hour long ferry ride back and forth around the East River in the late summer. There were barely any people on the ferry that day and I spent entire rides just taking note of the sun’s descent in the sky.

When this moment occurred, it was so brief and fleeting and yet so dramatic in its intensity as the sun dipped towards the midtown skyline grazing the skyscrapers that I barely even knew if I captured it properly since the waves were kicking up in the river and the boat was swaying up and down over the waves. By then, I had gotten my ‘sea legs’ and knew the exact way to stand and counter the movement with my camera in my hands.

And the sun-kissed skyline drifted away from view and descended into the twilight of evening.

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Taken with the Sony A77.

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New York City. Skyline cityscape at sunset.

There is something really extraordinary about the shift between day and night in New York City. It’s gradual and at the same time abrupt in its magnitude. The lights on the skyscrapers flicker on as the night sky pulls itself over the city while the sun is still dancing with the horizon. I love this time more than I love the moments when the sun disappears for the night.

It’s this sort of in-between time that seems to suit a city full of people who feed off the frenetic energy and constant shifts that occur on a momentary basis. New York City rarely dwells in absolutes. Its landscape and structures only seem to remain still.

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This is a 20 second long exposure taken with the Sony a99 from the highest desk on the Top of the Rock (also known as 30 Rock and the top of Rockefeller Center). The skyscrapers of midtown Manhattan sit in the foreground leading up to the Empire State Building and further in the distance sits the Freedom Tower and lower Manhattan.

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New York City. The skyline at sunset. Financial District.

New York City is magical
during the pause between night and day
when the sun dips behind the skyline
shining its light out through the twinkling eyes of the buildings.
This time of day is when
dreams roll off the tongue,
with a slow-motion exhale
at the end of a word
in a phrase
that trails off
without end.

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Winter in New York City isn’t the friendliest especially near the water when the wind-chills dip into the single digits and the wind whips across the waves. This is the result of a 30 second long exposure taken last night with the Sony a99 after a long-walk over the Brooklyn Bridge. The view is of the skyscrapers of the Financial District in lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty can be seen fading into the sun-streaked horizon. I have always loved the way the skyscrapers in this view just sort of abruptly break up the more open view on the left.

I love the moments just after sunset. The sky sinks into a momentary pause before the night sky pulls itself over the city. When everything is devoid of color on cloudy days, the tiny bits of color during these moments that come from the lights in the skyscrapers and the color that streaks across the bone-chilled-grey sky reach right into the heart.

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Stone Street. New York City’s first paved street. Financial District.

Stone Street is a narrow cobblestone alley that was first developed by Dutch colonists in the 1600s. Its claim to fame is that it is New York City’s first paved street and as such it is recognized as a historic landmark.

It’s the main part of an area currently known as the Stone Street Historic District. Nestled among skyscrapers in the Financial District, it’s something of a time machine back into another era of New York City’s history. The street is the site where British merchants traded and sold goods, where American colonialists passionately spoke of independence and where tracts of land were purchased and sold (completely disregarding the earlier inhabitants of the area).

The Dutch West India Company first sold this area to European property owners in the mid 1600s. It was around 1658 that the street was paved. The name Stone Street actually came about in the late 1700s. Prior to being named Stone Street, this alley was called Hoogh Straet and then Brouwer Street and also spent some time as Duke Street. Since the street is so close to the waterfront, it was the site of a tremendous amount of commercial activity for two centuries.

In the mid 1800s, the area was destroyed by the Great Fire. Even though the Great Fire leveled hundreds of buildings in the area, the Stone Street district bounced back due to New York City having the leading maritime port in the country. However, in the mid twentieth century the area saw a decline due to maritime activity moving to the west side of Manhattan. In the mid 1990s, funding was secured to restore the area back to its former glory.

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Shot with the Sony a99 a few days ago on a bitterly cold winter day here in New York City, I can’t think of a better time to experience this historic alley. It comes to life in the summer when it is full of chairs and tables linked to the many dining establishments that now inhabit the buildings along Stone Street. But it’s in the winter when the light barely reaches through to the ground and when the breeze from the river cuts through to the bone that it makes an indelible mark on the heart.

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