On Seeing: A Journal – #238

1/16/17

My resolute desire is to make photographs of things seen in an entirely new and unexpected way, things that I imagine and then create in the studio.

Despite that, when out of my studio, I carry a camera, looking.  Last week’s Journal was devoted to images made away from the studio that were “INSIDE.“  This note offers images existing in the world made “OUTSIDE” in New York City.  I still long passionately to explore possibilities in the studio, yet derive much joy making photographs of the world beyond.

Bridges:

Throgs Neck Bridge: Shooting up through our car’s roof window (from the passenger seat, of course) is a happy activity in a vertical city like New York.

George Washington Bridge

Brooklyn Bridge

STREETS FROM ABOVE

Evening                                         Day                                  In a snowstorm
From a 30th fl. window on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan

Looking down from a 53rd floor balcony.

Many photographers have studied reflections on the modern glass buildings in cities—there are a number of books on the subject. Still, I remain fascinated by how wonderful the city appears on these mirrors. And given shifting light and the sheer variety of cityscapes, originality is always possible.

In Central Park there are countless images to savor.

From the East side of Central Park looking west across the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir at the classic San Remo apartments.

As with reflections on buildings, Central Park has been studied by many photographers, but that’s no reason not to look and appreciate.

BUILDINGS

As these portraits of the great deco Chrysler building show, if one can’t control lighting outside as in the studio, getting attuned to nature’s illumination can offer infinite visual wonder.

Rockefeller Center is always worth a slow walk, offering near endless visual variety.

At Bryant Park

A whole new world of photography at night has become possible
with the highly sensitive digital plates of today’s modern cameras.

Despite rain, snow, sleet, freezing cold, or sweltering summers, there is so much to explore in the comfort of New York City….. enough for now.