Sure felt like spring today, but when are the trees going to bud and flower?
ˈfōtō ˈfôrtˌnīt frīdē
fōtō ˈfôrtˌnīt frīdē
Things are not always as they seem.
I was in midtown, in a very fancy, modern office building, visiting an immaculate office, then I moved towards the window…
The window looked out revealing not only the view across 6th Avenue but also a space beyond the outer wall of the room which as it turned out was not the outer wall of the building. The area didn’t look quite finished to me. The odd area of ragged incompletion surprised me. It was cut off from the building’s occupants, beyond the window and yet someone somehow traversed that small space in order to put a plant on the unfinished window sill.
ˈfōtō ˈfôrtˌnīt frīdē
Terrarium
This is the lobby of the New York Times building in midtown. I always think these terrariums are an odd feature, we can see nature but we can’t touch it or be with it or even breathe the same air. Is it enough to just be teased by seeing nature in its closed box? Maybe we shouldn’t bother at all.
ˈfōtō ˈfôrtˌnīt frīdē
I love walking and exploring the High Line,
ˈfōtō ˈfôrtˌnīt frīdē
Snow is an ugly thing in New York City. A few hours after the first pristine fall of the year the joy is over. Head high grey mountains are assembled by ploughs. Simultaneously deep, wide, lakes of slush collect at corners that resemble mountain passes. Anyone who wants dry feet must leap 4-6 feet if they want to get off their block. At night the whole mess freezes over and this winter, by morning, the snow inevitably has started up again.
But this is New York and the weather can turn quickly. A few hours after the slog of the morning snowy/wet/icy commute, there was a beautiful clear blue sky and sunshine. Warm enough to take off the hats and gloves AND unbutton the jacket. For a few minutes I forgot how filthy, untidy and annoying the city is when it is blanketed with snow. It made me think of this image from my archives from a time when I perceived snow as clean and fun!
I came across these kids whilst I was driving. I slammed on the brakes, threw the car up off the road and jumped out, trying to capture the sun’s rays that were highlighting the girls as they threw snowballs at each other. It was a beautiful scene, uplifting in the simple game of the girls, the magnificence of the sunbeams breaking through the heavy clouds and the sheer fun of leaping out of the car and rushing up the snowbank to capture the scene.
I’ll try to remember these positive emotions for the next snowfall, which according to the weather report will be, unsurprisingly, tomorrow!
ˈfōtō ˈfôrtˌnīt frīdē
TGIF – I have been waiting all week to introduce a website to you.
Run by London photographers Peter Marshall and Mike Seaborne, their Urban Landscape site is dedicated to some fascinating photography. Exploring both images and theory they ‘intend to feature the best in photography and critical writing on the urban landscape from around the world.’
The site features great swathes of Mike and Peter’s own in-depth projects on London, and also a variety of projects from invited contributors with links for further exploration. Feeling honoured, it gives me great pleasure to let you know that I have been invited to share their platform.
For my submission I decided to rework my East 100th Street project and produce a series that contextualizes East 100th Street within its East Harlem, New York City locale.
I am introducing 10 images that have not been seen before to add to another 10 from East 100th Street project and 20 from my Building Character project. I have also written a bit of a blurb, an introduction and 2 project descriptions, that aim to give some insight into my thoughts behind these projects.
Here’s one more new image to get you started…
… and here’s that link again…
I hope that you enjoy exploring the urban landscape.
16 Acres
16 Acres
I have just finished reading this interesting book on the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site. Watching the soundbites on the local news as the months and years of planning went by the whole venture seemed like a fiasco that would never be resolved. We know it has been now as we look at 1 World Trade Center reaching into the clouds but this book reveals the decisions and colorful process that took place in all its fascinating detail.
I leave you with a quote from the epilogue and the view of 1 WTC in the rain this week from Madison Street and Catherine Street.
“There was only one thing to report at ground zero: the process had done its necessary work, not neatly, not purely, not without selfishness or rancor or vice, but in a manner that was recognizable as essentially New York- fast, vital,vain, and not too hung up on the past.” (Nobel, 2004)
Sixteen Acres Architecture and the outrageous struggle for the future of ground Zero Philip Nobel
ˈfōtō ˈfôrtˌnīt frīdē
ˈfōtō ˈfôrtˌnīt frīdē
Seeing Rising Waters this week, the exhibition about Hurricane Sandy at the Museum of the City of New York, encouraged me to take this photograph.
On 1st Avenue at 99th Street this building was flooded by the East River surge, caused by Sandy, and has not been used since. In fact FDNY were the last people I saw enter the building on the night of the storm. For a while there was a notice on the door warning people not to enter. No one in the neighborhood knows why it is just sitting there empty but, from the outside, seemingly in perfect condition.
In such an illuminated city as New York it is very odd to see such a large building with not a single light on at night.
ˈfōtō ˈfôrtˌnīt frīdē
Theory (Clothing Store)
This building, in the Meatpacking district at the crossroads of Gansevoort Street, Little West 12th and Ninth Avenue, is a new building built in a turn of the century (last century!) style.
ˈfōtō ˈfôrtˌnīt frīdē
Sorry, a day late! This is the view when you emerge from the N train at 23rd Street.
