Before last weekend, I don’t think I had ever taken a single picture in New York City. Nothing of consequence for sure, but literally I may have taken less than five frames there, total, in my life, except for casual pictures of friends.
Strange I guess, but I always felt the same way as I feel about Paris - what in the hell am I going to shoot there that hasn’t been done a million times? In Paris I did sort of figure out a little hook for a short series a few years ago. In New York I’ve never even had the urge to try. Gun firmly in holster. I can’t really explain it.
So when a Dutch newspaper asked me to do some photos for a little travel piece about changes in lower Manhattan, it was both exciting and a little daunting. I’d have one day (well, much less after the train to and from DC the same day). So in the end it was lunchtime to dusk.
Thank god it was good weather and I was with the reporter, a great guy who skillfully steered us to choice spots. On top of everything I wasn’t feeling too great, so that’s a bummer when you’re praying your energy won’t fail you.
I used the opportunity to take the leap and shoot it all with my little Ricohs. Not to be a gearhead, but I’m loving working with the GRD and GXR in tandem. Just a 28 and a 50, light and nimble, great quality, and you come off as non-serious, a curious goofball, which can be a good thing when working on the street.
It was a pretty good day in the end. Of course I was shooting what was needed for the job, but I gave myself total license to have fun and shoot how I wanted. I found it interesting what some of the pics ended up reflecting - the ongoing transformation of NYC into a properly groomed city. I remember the 80s when you’d arrive in New York and it just seemed hopeless, unredeemable. The seedy and the funky and the shitty and the bohemian and the thrilling are largely gone. What was worst and best about the place.
But from an urbanistic point of view, what has come along with the tourists and soulless kitsch of places like Times Square (which, come on, was always kitsch, formerly just with enough danger and scruff to make it interesting) are some world-class improvements. I was pretty impressed with the subtle vibe in places like Battery Park, DUMBO, around the WTC, the new pavilion around the Staten Island ferry terminal…
There is, dare I say it, an emerging urban grace amid the city’s muscular exoskeleton.