New York, New Year

 

 

Ah, New York.  December of 2010 marked my third trip to NYC in two years.  The last time I was in NYC was in May; it was a great visit and I felt like I got to see a different side of the city than I did on my first trip.  So, when we booked this trip, I was very excited.  It was the week between Christmas and New Year's and I was looking forward to seeing the city during the winter/holiday season.  Of course, the week we left, the weather wasn't so great.  The New York area received the sixth worst snowfall on record; luckily, we happened to be traveling the day that the airports opened back up.  We actually arrived on time with no delays; that is, until we walked outside of LGA and waited over an hour in the cab line.  We're used to major snowfalls here in Ohio and so is New York.  The problem with NY is that they don't have anywhere to go with the snow.  I've never seen cross walks buried and individuals walking around with shovels.  It was truly a sight.  With that being said, we didn't let the snow dampen our spirits.  We still got to explore and do some exciting things; it just made getting around a bigger hassle than normal.  I also wasn't too keen on wearing my snow boots everywhere I went.  It was interesting to see the city in such a state; When we first arrived everyone was still digging out.  I don't think I've seen the city so vacant.  There wasn't a lot of people out, but by the time New Year's Eve rolled around, things had picked back up to normal.  Besides the snow and a touch of the flu that we came down with, I had a good time.  I was able to get some wonderful images that I couldn't have gotten at any other time during the year and I again saw parts of the city that I hadn't. I kicked off the New Year in New York, something not everyone can say.  New York is so photogenic; walk outside the door and there are a number of things to shoot.  I'm never disappointed and I look forward to the next time I visit.  The images above are from the first day and I'll be posting more soon.  Enjoy and as always, feel free to comment.

Lomography Fisheye

I received a Lomography Fisheye No. 2 camera for Christmas.  I'm just starting to experiment with lomography cameras and I'm very excited about the results and creativity that they can yield.  I also have a Holga and a Diana F+ in my camera arsenal; however, this was my first roll of film for one of my lomography cameras.  I didn't have amazing results, but I did enjoy shooting with it.  The Fisheye No. 2 is a very finicky camera.  It requires a lot of light and usually doesn't produce results on anything lower than 400 film.  I used Fuji Superia 400 for my first roll and I received mixed results.  Only 12 out of the 24 prints came back and a few of them were not good.  I did manage to get a few decent shots.  Obviously, as I'm very new to shooting with film, it's a learning experience.  The Fisheye, regardless of the fact that you don't have to worry about settings, is also a learning experience.  I need to be careful of my lighting situations; I need to experiment with the film and I need to adjust how I shoot from the viewfinder.  However, that's the fun with lomography, film cameras and photography in general.  It's a learning experience.  The more you understand how your camera works, the types of lighting and how it effects your shots, etc. the better results you will achieve.  So, enjoy my first Fisheye shots and stay tuned to see my second roll.  Also, be on the lookout for my first Holga and Diana F+ rolls too!

The Guggenheim

Frank Lloyd Wright.  Architect.  Japanese Print Collector.  Functionality.  Genius.  Visionary.  Ahead of his time-then and now.  These are words I would use to briefly describe Frank Lloyd Wright.  I briefly touched on Frank Lloyd Wright and the Guggenheim in my NYC overview post, but I feel that this building and the man who created it should be given their own post.  For those of you who don't know, Frank Lloyd Wright was asked in 1943, by letter, to design a new building to house Solomon R. Guggenheim's museum of paintings.  Like many times before and many times after, this was a project that put the artist (Frank Lloyd Wright) and his creativity in direct conflict with his client, the city, the art world and essentially everyone.  In fact, it was a great struggle that wasn't realized until 1959; after both Wright and Guggenheim had past away.

If you haven't seen it, the building is a geometrical marvel.  In fact, it seems to posses otherworldly qualities.  It goes against the typical train of thought for how a museum is laid out, yet I'm surprised more museums haven't used it as a model.  The gallery area of the museum is a never ending circle; one exhibit flows right into another as an individual ascends or descends.  The individual pieces of art are next to each other, yet they are in their own gallery.  This is how art should be viewed.  As a continuum; pieces that are breathtaking and can be viewed and enjoyed for their individual merit, yet as a whole they encompass an exhibit that speaks volumes to the subject at hand.  This is how I felt about the exhibit "Haunted."  This exhibit featured contemporary photography, video and performance.  Photos, videos and past performances are essentially ghosts of the individuals that were photographed or videotaped.  An image is the freezing of time; a moment; a feeling; an event.  It's one of these things, yet it's all of these things.  When we leave this world, there will still be part of us left behind in these images.  Does that make you look at an image or a video differently?  Do the pictures that you take, that you post, define you?  Do they represent the person you were at that time?  Do they represent what you aspire to be?

Seeing this exhibit was, for lack of a better word, very haunting.  To view these images and realize these ghosts of the past (some even decades ago) were there in some form on the day I visited, it's just staggering.  Were those individuals aware that they would be viewed in such a way?  What would they think?  Photography and video is a great way of remembering and capturing the world.  The artist behind the camera could be feeling very different emotionally than the subject of their work; however, a good artist will not only be able to capture the subject, but they'll be able to capture that emotion.  That emotion is what will live on forever when we, as individuals, are no longer here.  Think of the Guggenheim; it's Frank Lloyd Wright living on forever.  He had the push, guts and mental and emotional fortitude to follow his dream and achieve his vision, no matter how many people were against it.  Today, the building doesn't look like typical architecture from the '50s - it looks contemporary or futuristic even to today's standards.  This is part of his legacy.  He lives on forever; we are haunted by his beauty every day.

As an amateur photographer, if I can can convey an emotion of the moment that I captured, than I, in essence, am doing what I set out to do with my photography.

New York State of Mind

I've been to NYC a total of two times and I consider myself a savvy traveler.  Booking anything through an agency or travel agent is against my "travel beliefs" and I prefer doing a lot of research and planning the entire trip myself.  With NYC, it's a little bit different.  My sister-in-law has lived in Manhattan for about five years, so visiting is like having your own personal tour guide to the city - a new yorker showing you "their" city.  I'm very grateful for this, as I'm sure I've experienced things that a tourist traveling to NYC would never think to do. 

With that being said, I can say that my second visit was dramatically different than the first.  The first visit to NYC was in 2008.  As soon as I stepped out of the apartment building on our first morning, I was in utter awe and was out of sorts.  The city is so massive and it's very tough to get your bearings.  I'm not used to that - usually I just start going and work my way around the city and I feel very comfortable.  It took me a good day and a half to get adjusted.  I was shooting with my Sony Cybershot camera on that trip and I was taking shots of everything.  That was my first shoot, so I like to think I've become more picky about the things I shoot. 

As I said, the second visit was much different than the first.  I was there for a few days at the end of May.  My wife (then fiance) was picking up her wedding dress and I had the pleasure of accompanying her on the trip (though I didn't see her dress until the wedding day).  I felt more at ease with the city and I was able to slow down; if that makes since.  I feel like I got a better picture, no pun intended, of how the city really is.  I created images much different from my first trip, I hit a creative sweet spot on the third day, and I had a really nice time.

The first day was filled with exploring the High Line, which is an elevated subway line that has been converted to a park.  When it's completely finished, it will be a mile and a half elevated park that will run through West Side districts like the Meatpacking District and Chelsea.  The park is very serene and is an elevated Oasis above the craziness that is the city.  Definitely worth checking out if you're in the neighborhood.  The second day I walked the Brooklyn Bridge and explored Brooklyn a bit.  Brooklyn has become a very trendy borough; we walked around an area that had a ton of one-of-a-kind boutiques and restaurants.  The third day, a very creative day, was spent at Grand Central Terminal, Central Park and Washington Square Park.  I took a ton of images and I hit a creative high by the time we arrived at Washington Square Park. The final day was spent at the Guggenheim Museum, where we saw the "Haunted" exhibit.  I've said it before, but Frank Lloyd Wright was well ahead of his time and still is.  The Guggenheim is such an amazing structure; it's worth the price of admission just to see the building.  It was a short trip, but one that included a mix of touristy and non-touristy activities. 

This was the third time I was out with my Canon EOS 50D and I really began to use some of the features on the camera. I came away happy with the images I created and I look forward to my next visit to the city.  I will post images as usual in the upcoming blogposts.