A People's Memorial

Never Forget

Adjacent to Ground Zero, St. Paul's Chapel miraculously survived the blast that leveled the twin towers and forever changed our lives.  After September 11, St. Paul's ministered to the workers at Ground Zero, what they called "The Pile."  During this time thousands of visitors from around the world transformed the wrought iron fence surrounding St. Paul's Chapel into a spontaneous memorial.  They left many different items that held significant personal meaning.  By the time the 9/11 ministry ended at St. Paul's, the items filled 250 boxes.

The items are at once both heartwarming and sad. There is the banner from Oklahoma City professing its support and love for New York.  You can't see that and not be moved.  There are also many, many photos of the fallen and the missing.  Some firefighters, others police officers, still other just civilians like myself, mementos of lives cut short by madmen and by "politics by other means".  You can't look at photos of the dead and the missing without being moved to tears. 

Click here to see the remaining photos on my Flickr page.

Times Square

Thanksgiving Dinner, Lost in Yonkers

West 10th Street, Brooklyn

By the time this post hits my blog, I'll be in New York for Thanksgiving week.  Before leaving, I wanted to publish one last post and thought, in counterpoint to the season, I'd post something from summer.

I took this shot in 2005 on West 10th Street and the Boardwalk on Coney Island in Brooklyn during the Mermaid Parade.  For those who haven't been, the Mermaid Parade is sheer insanity, but in a really decadent and fun way.  Hundreds of people pack both side of Mermaid Avenue to watch the craziness. 

Zen and the City

Zen and the City

I've been going over some old photos, just for chucks and grins I guess.  Nothing in particular, just checking out what I've done in the past, how I've grown as an artist, how my technique has changed and came across this image.  

I remember taking this photo in 2004, walking down the streets of Midtown Manhattan at the height of Christmas week, tourists everywhere, the crowds, the hustle, the bustle, the grit, the rush, I really remember it all for some reason.  What I also remember, is the space passersby gave the six people on the sidewalk.  

If you've ever walked the streets of Midtown in the middle of the day you'll understand the the crowd.  For those who haven't, picture an intense river of people, a river oftentimes possessed of its own power, one that pushes and pulls, ebbs and flows to its own will, irrespective of any one individual's desire.  If you're not careful, you'll be caught up in it and miss your destination.  

This river of people made a wide berth for the six on the sidewalk.  Impressive, I thought.  Impressive I still think. [more after the break]

Alone in a Sea of People

New York Subway, somewhere underneath Manhattan

Big cities fascinate me.  Each one has its own feel to it, and yet in many ways they are all the same.  Large, bustling, vibrant and full of life.  Full of people living the novels of their lives.  I love to visit large cities and just hit the pavement with my camera. 

If you wander the streets of any large city, though, you'll soon enough encounter the solitary, the lonely, and the pensive.  Sometimes they are quite literally alone.  Sometimes they're surrounded by the hustle and bustle of the city around them, they are alone in a sea of humanity.

Thinking about stuff in Portland

With some the solitude is welcome, a brief respite from hectic lives or the demands of others.  With others, though, the solitude is imposed, either by a society that ignores their plight or by the demons in their head that alienate them from others. Sometimes it is easy to tell which is which; sometimes it is more difficult.

The photos in this series span from December, 2007 to August, 2011.  They weren't taken as a series but just as shots over time.  It wasn't until I started culling older shots that the series came to mind. 

The entire series Alone in a Sea of People can be viewed on my Flickr feed here. 

Scenes From Gasworks Park

Jackie and I spent the second half of August in Seattle, a city that I'd always planned on visiting but just never seemed to make it out to.  Seattle was supposed to be the start of a trip down the Pacific Coast Highway, one that would end in Big Sur.  This was going to be one long, great road trip, something that I also have always planned but just never seemed to do.  However, circumstances changed at the last minute.

Friends of my in Seattle finagled a deal for Jackie and me to house-sit a condo belonging to a friend of theirs.  A beautiful city, cool friends and great lodgings for a week.  Well, you really can't beat that.  So, we stayed in Seattle for a week.  Big Sur would have to wait.

It's taken me this long to cull through 1,300+ photos.  This is the first set called Scenes From Gasworks Park. [more after the break]

Steal Like an Artist

 

"Good artists copy. Great artists steal." Pablo Picasso

Harlem Grieves #9

In December of 2006 I happened to be in New York for Christmas week at the same time that James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, passed away.  Although New York is an immense place, I just happened to be staying with relatives in Harlem, literally walking distance to 125th Street and the famed Apollo Theater.  When it was announced that he would lay in state at the Apollo and that members of the public were welcome to pay their respects, I had to go. There aren't many celebrities for whom I would stand in line in 45 degree weather, but he was an exception.  I grabbed my daughter, then twelve years of age, and took her to pay our respects to the Godfather of Soul.  Of course, I also took my camera. [more after the break]

Occupy Miami

As protesters clashed with police on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York during another march of the Occupy Wall Street movement, an old-style sit-in was occurring at the Torch of Friendship, in Downtown Miami on October 1, 2011.  Passion, intensity, anger and a desire to seize  the moment were present.  It remains to be seen how successful this movement can be.

The participants aired a variety of grievances from excessive student loans, to Wall Street greed, to the Fair Districts Amendment, voter suppression, LGBT discrimination, and a litany of others. 

Will it survive?  Will it succeed?  In Miami?  Doubtful.  There's just too much apathy here.  Nationwide?  Well, it just might be enough to sway the next election. 

View the rest of the photos in my Flickr feed.

The Future of Photo Books

The Future of Photobooks: Flash Forward Festival Discussion from FlakPhoto.com on Vimeo.

Presented without comment.

Tomorrowland

Urban, hip, gritty, gentrified, artsy, blue-collar, new, and decaying. Wynwood is a place that defies description and one that presents us with a paradox.

Wynwood had it's origins in the great Puerto Rican migration of the 1950's. People came here in droves seeking a better life for themselves and their families, seeking a better tomorrow. Like immigrants before them, they founded a neighborhood that met their needs and reflected their character, all within the limited resources available to them. Through the years, Wynwood remained an island of genuineness in a city that was constantly being remade. It was an area apart.

Battle at F-Stop Ridge

Presented without comment.

Hip Shots

Barcelona, June, 2009

If you use an instrument or a tool long enough, eventually you don't see its separateness anymore.  The thing you use, whatever it might be, ceases to exist separately and becomes virtually an extension of you.  I know several seasoned musicians who feel this way about their instruments.  

I've been shooting 1 Series Canon cameras for nearly a decade now.  Both my Canons, in fact, are set exactly the same so that I can switch between them without thinking about it.  A few years back Canon changed the interface and operations of its 1 Series.  I've grown so accustomed to mine that I can't really imagine switching over anytime soon.  Well, that and the expense too.

Jada Cole's, May, 2010

I'm so accustomed to them, actually, that on many occasions I can just point a camera and click off a shot being pretty certain not only that I was able to achieve focus, but that I also captured an interesting frame too.

The first shot in this series was captured in the Bario Gotico in Barcelona in June, 2009.  I was standing outside a small, quaint shop waiting for my daughter to decide what she wanted when this couple just crossed my path.  The guy made eye contact with me and grimaced.  I don't know why -- he just did.  I quickly angled my camera, pressed the focus button and then squeezed off a shot.  No second chances on this one.

The second image was taken as the parting shot as I left Jada Cole's late one evening in May, 2010.  As I was leaving the bar, she looked over and smiled.  I moved my camera in position and took this shot.  I think she's lovely.

Reservoir Dogs

It's the bride's day. From the flowers to the cake to the limo, the entire day should speak of and to her. A wedding that does this , and the photography of that wedding, is pretty much considered a success.  Still, in all truth the bride is but one half of the wedding. This raises the question, What to do with the groom?

I've tried a variety of shots but none has the visual presence of the "Reservoir Dogs" shot.  For those who are not fans, Reservoir Dogs is Quentin Tarantino's first film as a writer and director.  It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, 1992 and instantly made Tarantino's career. Two years later he followed his success with Pulp Fiction, to this day my favorite Tarantino film, but that's an article for a different blog.