A Whale of a Whale
I was rooting around in my New York City negative archives from the early 1990's. I came across a bunch of 4x5 negatives. I didn't realize how much street photography I did back then with an old hand held 4x5 Crown Graphic. Not much of the work stands the test of time, but I like this one. Aside from the graphic quality of the billboard, I like the two cabs waiting for their turn in the carwash. Like old movies where you can date the film by the vintage of the cars that appear in the movie, the same holds true for photographic images. Looking at the two cabs, you know you looking at something late 80's to early 90's.
Coolest Building in NYC
This the IAC Building on the the corner of 11th Avenue and 18th Street in Manhattan. Frank Gehry was the architect: if you know his work, from just looking at the building, it's pretty obvious he designed it. It's my favorite contemporary building in New York. Every time I go the Chelsea Market to purvey food stuff I always find free parking on 11th Avenue (there goes my "go-to" parking secret.) And I always make a couple of captures of the IAC building as I walk by. Yesterday, the afternoon light was dull, the sky was overcast, and there was a serious threat of snow in the air. Just right to photograph Gehry's building.
Here's Looking at You, Barnie Newman
Last Monday, I took my son, Alex, to the Museum of Modern Art for his first visit to what he calls a "big time museum". MOMA is showing their huge collection of NY Abstract Expressionism. It is an impressive show; heavy on Jackson Pollock, Hans Hofman, Adolph Gottlieb, and Barnett Newman. My son is taking AP art at George School, and although he wasn't very familiar with abstract expressionism, he understood the concept of the "movement" and he had some interesting things to say about various pieces that we saw. In particular, he was amazed that Barnett Newman always used the same format of equally dividing space in his large canvasses.
The image I made was captured on MOMA's second floor in their bookstore, overlooking the huge atrium and the lobby downstairs. I had Alex stand with his back to me and made a capture, and then I made a capture of just the space without him. Obviously, I combined the images with Photoshop and then ran the darker blue stripe right down the middle separating the two images. This one's for you, Alex.
