Photography: Store Fronts

Store Fronts, a set on Flickr.

I started this project earlier this year when I realised that I kept taking photos of random storefronts in Brooklyn and Manhattan. I started putting all the photos together and realised it could be quite a cool collection... I've been on a bit of a photography lag lately, not really feeling inspired, or too tired to go and find something to spike my interest. I woke up way too early this morning and just decided to go out for a walk, and found some interesting places.
This is just a small collection - I'm sure I'll be adding a lot more to it over the next few months.

Photography: People/Portraits

People/Portraits, a set on Flickr.

I finally took the time yesterday to start putting this collection together. Taken over the past two years, these are all shots of people that I have taken with either my Canon AE-1 (film) or my Canon DSLR. A lot of them are of people I know, some are random shots outside on the streets of NYC and nearly all of them are completely candid, which I really love.

I shall be adding to this as time goes by, or maybe I will make a second set, as this one is already quite substantial!

Photography: Bushwick 2009-2012

Bushwick, a set on Flickr.

After posting the Harlem collection the other day, and after a comment from a friend about how I should build up the collection over time, I started thinking about all of the photos I have taken of my current neighbourhood, Bushwick, over the past four years I have lived here. I started really getting into photography back in 2009, mainly because the sheer amount of street art in my neighbourhood kept catching my eye, and I felt the need to start capturing it on camera.
Bushwick is a strange neighbourhood, part family, part warehouses. There are some very old townhouses and a lot of abandoned buildings, a lot of churches and a lot of noise, unless you live down one of the quieter streets. Over the past 4 years I have seen the area change rapidly, new bars, new restaurants, more organic supermarkets, new coffee shops, new people moving in, but it has still retained the same atmosphere and rents (hopefully, but I hear that a new music venue is going to be opening in Bushwick soon, so I'm sure that will effect rents soon enough).
I know it's not the safest, or the cleanest, or the prettiest neighbourhood in NYC, but it works for me. I don't see myself moving away from here, not anytime soon in any case.

These photos were taken over the past 3 years with different cameras, both digital and film (Canon AE-1 (one from 1980 and one from 1978; Canon Rebel DSLR; Holga). I know that I have posted some of these in other collections before, but feel like they belong in this one too.

Bushwick on Wikipedia

Photography: Harlem etc

Harlem etc, a set on Flickr.

When I moved to NYC 7 years ago it was the first time I had ever set foot in the city. After a short-lived sublet on the Lower East Side I found a much more affordable sublet in Spanish Harlem, on First Ave, between 119th and 120th. The first time I was actually living alone, without roommates, my own tiny one bedroom with a little concrete backyard. At the time it was still pretty much affordable, albeit not the safest neighbourhood in the city. I never had a problem though, the guys who were always hanging out on my stoop looked out for me, the deli next door picked up my deliveries and the only time the walk to the subway was a problem was after my first NYC blizzard during the Winter Olympics in 2006.
Needless to say, I ended up moving to a much more expensive tiny box studio in the West Village 10 months later, and never really went back up there to visit. I decided to make the most of the beautiful weather today and made my way up to 125th Street to take some photos...
The place has changed a lot, but is still so similar at the same time... There are new shops, a couple of Starbucks, a Target and a TD Bank; but it's still as loud, interesting and diverse as it used to be. Nowhere else have I seen a car rushing down the street with a guy holding a megaphone and blasting music, making the whole street stop, clap and start dancing. I suppose it's cleaner and safer, but still as energetic and colourful. I wonder how much small one bedroom apartments go for up there now...

I then made my way downtown and took a few shots of the new Occupy Wall St terrain in Union Sq, and my favourite church, Grace Church, on Broadway and 11th St.

Photography: Through My Eyes - Jan & Feb 2012

Through My Eyes - 1, a set on Flickr.

Taking a little break from novel writing today and compiling some random shots I have taken over the past few weeks. I found myself with a lot of photos that don't really fit into any category (area, place, show etc), but are all images of something that caught my eye when I was walking around.
I feel so lucky to live in a place where there is always something to take a photo of, however fleeting or permanent it may be...

Words on Walls

Words, a set on Flickr.

Over the past few weeks I have been trying to sort through hundred of photos, both digital and film, to see if I can sort them out by theme rather than date which is how they are currently sorted.

I finished this one last night, a collection of words on walls and signs in NYC, Long Island, London. I am sure I will add to it as I am always taking photos of random words that I see in random places.

On one of my walks I was taking pictures of a mural on Myrtle Ave, in Bushwick going towards Ridgewood. The mural took up the whole of a deli wall, and said "Jesus Saves Brooklyn". A couple of guys stopped to tell me that "Jesus Saves" was actually a grafitti artist and that was his name. So there... If you ever see "Jesus Saves" on walls around town, it's not someone telling you that Jesus saves, just an artist signing off on his work.

Anyway, to be continued...

Art/Exhibitions: Batman Returns/New Photographers/Vivian Maier

Joyce Pensato

Joyce Pensato/Freidrich Petzel Gallery: I was actually looking for the New Photographers showing in one of the galleries on 22nd street when stumbled upon a sign saying "Batman Returns". How could I resist?! Located at the Friedrich Petzel Gallery, Joyce Pensato's exhibition contains large, striking portraits of Batman on the walls, dripping with black and silver paint, as well as other artistic transformations of iconic American cartoon characters ("Punk Homer" and "London Donald" for example). While these portraits cover the walls, the floors are covered in paint splatters, stuffed animals and other objects, such as a plastic Mickey Mouse head, a snowman that you would usually find glowing in someone's garden around Christmas and other seemingly random (but not so random) paraphernalia.

Joyce Pensato

You feel like you are walking into an organised chaos, dark and light, good and bad, where characters we perceive to be innocent and friendly have been warped and all is being looked over by an iconic figure who is struggling to remain on the right side of it all. New York City basically. Both dark and bright, slightly ironic, but more just really tongue in cheek than anything else. Anyway - I loved this exhibition and I can't stop thinking about it. I'll probably go back again before it ends to spend more time there. The exhibition is on until February 25th.
Joyce Pensato

Joyce Pensato

Other interesting exhibitions on right now:
Vivian Maier/Steven Kasher Gallery: This is seriously amazing! All through-out her life Vivian Maier took thousands and thousands of pictures on the streets of NYC and Chicago, developed some and kept the negatives of the rest. They were all discovered after her death and as some are currently being exhibited, the rest are being sorted through and developed. I will probably be writing about Vivian Maier again, as I want to go back and spend more time looking at her photos. The type I photography that I really love more than anything, and the type of photography that is probably the closest to what I aim to produce.
More information on Vivian Maier HERE

Vivian Maier

Danziger Gallery: their New Photographers exhibition has some gems - especially Chris Levine's Queen Portraits and Tereza Vlckova's twins and free-flying women (both striking in very different ways). On until February 25th.
(Watch the video on Chris Levine's website (linked above) - there is a moment when the Queen just laughs and seems so lovely and human).

Chris Levine

2011 in images (make up your own stories)

2011 in images, a set on Flickr.

I couldn't bring myself to write a post about 2011 - so much happened last year, and I feel that everything has already been said and done and written about in some form or another. Therefore, I am just posting a set of pictures that I took over the year, some with my phone, some with my DSLR, others with with film cameras. All in all they describe this year somehow in my head.

Happy New Year!

Bushwick Ave to Broadway

Bushwick Ave to Broadway, a set on Flickr.

From nothing for weeks to three sets in three days... I suppose I've been more inspired these past few days, taking my camera out every time I go for a walk or run some errands. I love walking down Bushwick Avenue to the Post Office at Gates Ave and Broadway. The street is lined with beautiful old buildings, some well kept, others in various stages of dilapidation. There are many different churches along the way, often facing each other on opposite sides of the street. And then there is the bustle of the walk back along Broadway, under the elevated subway tracks: fried chicken, 99 cent shops, launderettes, delis, African supermarkets, dust, noise, colours and different languages.
Lastly, a photo of the house that I have always wanted to own, from the moment I moved to Bushwick. It's so intriguing...