152. NEW YORK ON FOOT. The Bronx. Niether digital nor analog could save the tonal range of this photo because it wasn’t there in the first place, but when raw horsepower is needed analog leaves fewer contaminants behind. The relatively empty spaces and open sky of the Bronx can leave one feeling wistful on a lazy summer evening.
151. PASSAGES. Charlotte, North Carolina. I doubt a picture says a thousand words, but a picture certainly can cause a thousand words. I read an article recently where the author argued that on the scale of safety versus liberty, the USA leans heavily toward liberty. In 1776 this country decided to step out of the mainstream of Occidental civilization and go it alone. As an immigrant from a British colony, I am only beginning to understand the place, but my affection for it grows despite the overheated rhetoric that images like the above provoke. “This country is hard on people” is a line from No Country for Old Men, another uncomfortable snapshot of America.
150. NEW YORK ON FOOT. Turtle Bay, Manhattan. It seems that every 19th Century European painter took a shot at the “Paris street, rain at dusk” picture. There is something archetypal about turning up one’s collar against the rain while looking in envy at warm interiors, and the orange glow of tungsten light is the perfect foil for the cold blue of a rainy winter sky. Its a scene that I never tire of. The blur caused by camera shake and a bad lens makes the image more painterly.
149. NEW YORK ON FOOT. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Taken at the northern tip of Brooklyn, looking across Newtown Creek into Queens. The image has that unique sunlight effect of some coastal cities–I have seen it in New York, Vancouver, Galway, Los Angeles and various places around the Mediterranean, but never in the tropics. Maybe its a Northern Hemisphere thing.
148. PASSAGES. Valley Stream, Long Island. Taken six weeks after Hurricane Sandy 25 miles from Manhattan. This quiet suburban street didn’t make the news because it was nothing compared to what happened in Gerritsen Beach or Breezy Point. New York is difficult enough without superstorms.
147. PASSAGES. Montreal. I have long believed that islands make the most interesting cultures. Something about isolation, and without the ability to sprawl island cultures tend to concentrate rather than dissipate. An analogy is Peter O’toole telling Charlie Rose that it is better to deepen rather than broaden for an actor to achieve more powerful effects. Quebec is an island of eight million Francophones in Anglo North America. It is both Europe and North America, yet something else completely. In the art of living it is certainly a step above.
146. PASSAGES. The Berkshires, Massachusetts. This wooded, mountainous region is revered by Northeasterners. Even the names around here have a Northeastern sound: the Taconic Mountains, the “marble valleys of the Hoosic River”, the Hudson Highlands, and all of it bordered by “Metacomet Ridge geology”. The Berkshire mountain ranges were formed 500 million years ago when Africa collided with North America. Imagine that.
145. NEW YORK ON FOOT. Central Park. 843 acres of parkland in the midst of some of the most condensed, populated, competitive, expensive real estate on the planet? The fact that Central Park even exists is hard to believe. Forget the Statue of Liberty, Central Park is my vote as the symbol of the American Dream. “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.” –Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural.
144. PASSAGES. Saint Thomas, US Virgin Islands. Christopher Columbus “sighted” this island in 1493. The photo has an odd look, more like a studio setup with a fake background than an extemporanious landscape. Speaking of which, for some of the best studio-for-outdoors shots, take a look at Fellini’s La Dolce Vita for the scenes on (an entirely constructed) Via Veneto. The word iconic is thrown around a lot these days, but Anouk Aimee and Marcello Mastroianni in black and white at Cinecitta? Spettacolare.
143. PASSAGES. Quintana Roo, Mexico. Who says digital cameras can’t render like analog? Taken on a cheap DSLR with a plastic lens. The image would have lost something with better equipment. What did that Canadian Marshall Mcluhen say? The medium is the message?
142. PASSAGES. Bailiwick of Jersey, Channel Islands. Nothing located in the frigid and rainy English Channel could resemble the pacific climate of the Mediterranean, but some glimpses of Jersey put one in mind of Monaco. They are both famous European tax havens. Who’s counting, but the yachts are far bigger on the Cote d’Azur.
141. PASSAGES. Bailiwick of Jersey, Channel Islands. One of a group of islands off the coast of Normandy. Not quite English, not quite French, modern but with traces of old world European charm. It is one of the worlds “leading offshore financial centers”. Its climate is far more temperate than what you would expect in the English Channel.
140. NEW YORK ON FOOT. Midtown East. UN protests and heavy auto traffic are common in East Midtown. Recently published figures: 731,000 automobiles enter Manhattan below 60th street daily; it takes 40 minutes to drive the (two mile) width of Manhattan at rush hour; the average auto travels at 8.2 MPH in Manhattan (only 2.5 times average human walking speed); and it costs three to five thousand dollars per annum to rent parking in Midtown. A native Manhattanite I know calls it the Midwestern Diet: people move here, ditch the ride, and the walking loses them ten pounds in the first month.
139. TRAVELS IN INDIA. Kamathipura, Mumbai. A mundane scene, but it contains a lot of India. Cows and carters, which you see everywhere, but take a look at the narrow workshop in the background. All over India you will see people working in these tiny spaces. Welders, shoemakers, carpenters, machinists, tailors–you name it. Kamathipura has hundreds of them, making for a lot of noise and activity. Kama is also a famous red light district, and the ladies often set up right next to the workshops. Of course Indians are completely unfazed by this rather odd juxtaposition.
138. NEW YORK ON FOOT. Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Northwestern Williamsburg just in from the East River has some of New York’s more interesting post-industrial scenery. This shot is another example of why just putting on a good pair of shoes and getting constructively lost is the best way to discover New York’s quirky splendor. The photo is nothing without the lifts in the background, although the bright sky pushed the camera sensor far beyond its capabilities. They were worth it.
137. NEW YORK ON FOOT. Willamsburg Bridge. Looking southwest, Brooklyn is to the left, lower Manhattan to the right. The Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges in the middle background. A walking visit to New York should not miss a trip or two across the Billy Bridge, especially at dusk. One of the more interesting views in the city.
136. PASSAGES. Miami Beach, Florida. It gets pretty simple sometimes, a beach and a good polarizing filter. Cameras and sand are not a match made in heaven, but sand, water and sun definitely are. I can see why people walk so slowly here.
135. PASSAGES. Miami. Sea, sky and city at dawn. Looking west across Biscayne Bay, a series of small islands in the foreground and the Miami skyline in the background. One of the real pleasures here are the sea breezes which carry that unmistakably fragrant Caribbean air. The southeastern coasts of the USA are an interesting hybrid of Western Europe, Spain, Africa and Mesoamerica.
134. PASSAGES. South Beach, Miami. The big Art Deco hotels of South Beach are worth seeing if you like bold stylistic statements, but the quiet stuff is just as interesting. “SoBe” feels like a mix of Beverly Hills and Venice Beach, with a whiff of Charleston and (oddly) Singapore thrown in. The idea is to photograph early or late, because the white buildings are impossible in the equatorial midday glare.
133. NEW YORK ON FOOT. East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. East Williamsburg, a so-called “lonely industrial wasteland”, is one of the purest examples of New York’s grimy beauty. I don’t think they do walking tours here.