At 30 Rockefeller Center you will find some of the great New York Art Deco Architectural Masterpieces. Outside the entrance to perhaps the most famous building in the center is a wonderful saying taken from Isaiah. If to only hope for one, but two…I think our time (like most) could use a bit of both.
When I travel, I usually have a very loose idea of what I want to see. I don’t make concrete plans, everything stays very fluid…I am a Pisces after all. My general mode of transportation is almost always walking. I prefer to see a city by foot. I often walk so much I end up destroying my feet for weeks to come after my adventures. I am learning the importance of good socks and proper fitting shoes. One morning when we were walking around I shot this street scene in New York City. The light is dramatic, but otherwise it’s street much like you would see in any city. I think that simplicity and the wonderful warm light are what I love about this shot. To me it screams New York in the morning.
At one point in my life, I wanted to work on Wall Street. For a portion of my younger years I had an…interesting love of Michael J. Fox’s character Alex P. Keaton. This included a brief case to carry my school supplies, dressing in clothes more intended for church then normal school days and regular reading of the Wall Street Journal. Needless to say I was very popular in the 6th grade, or as I like to look at it, I have never been afraid to express myself differently then those around me. Thought the briefcase was left behind years ago, I still to this day find myself doing things a little differently then others. I didn’t think much about the contrast when I was at the New York Stock Exchange, photographing, but it strikes me now how what WAS and what IS in our lives is constantly changing. Then again, isn’t everything.
Some photographers have to constantly remind themselves to look behind, above and below their eye level. I don’t seem to have that trouble. I love ceilings. I am not sure why, but they seems easy to me. There are so many things that are hard to truly see, but that easy shot is a double edged sword. The things that are easy in our life tend to start to lose their joy. We want to conquer something new. We long for a new sensation…one we always knew was there, but we failed to see its beauty. One of my goals for 2013 is to “SEE” the world differently. I don’t expect it to be easy, but welcome the growth. This is where I am looking now. The forward. It too is a double edged sword and one of my goals for 2013. I constantly lose the now for the future. I must remember the past and the the future are but illusion, NOW is all that truly exists. This following photo is of the ceiling of St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, NY, USA.
I wonder about the statue of Atlas, holding up the world on his massive shoulders. Did the Rockefeller family see themselves or J.D. as some modern and Earthly incarnation of the Titan? Perhaps, the statue was donated by someone seeking the families favor. Regardless, this is the largest sculpture at Rockefeller Center and apparently when installed in 1937 people thought it looked too much like Benito Mussolini.
After The American Arts and Crafts period, Art Deco is one of my favorite styles. It’s one of the reasons I loved playing the BioShock series of video games, honestly. There is just something about the bold geometric influence while still preserving some new machine age ornateness that just gets me. New York has some great living examples of Art Deco design and Rockefeller Center is but one of these amazing examples.
When you have been to the great cathedrals of Europe it becomes more and more difficult to be impressed by more modern churches in the United States. It’s not that we do anything wrong in our construction, rather, it’s simply difficult to compete with a structures that have withstood hundreds of years. One very notable exception is St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City at a very young 134, this is one of the most beautiful houses of worship in the United States.
While Pamela shopped across the street at H&M (yes St Patrick’s is across the street from shopping), I decided to walk over to St. Pat’s to get a quick scouting look and if things were quite (very few people) I might get a few shots. Quite was not exactly the mood, rather it was packed with people celebrating a Peruvian Catholic Festival called Señor de los Milagros de Nazarenas. It is aparently on the the largest processions in the world (in Lima, Peru)…the festivities in NYC were impressive and I was caught up in the excitement. The photography below was the next day when we returned to Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. The video was during the festival shot from my iPhone.
In everything photography I wrestle constantly with limits. My camera has limits, my software has limits, I have limits. From…how far do I want to push my comfort zone when taking a photo to how far do I push the image with software…limits. How much does a trip cost, how much time do I have off work, where will I sleep and what will I eat…limits. Perhaps it’s the confinement of these same limits that makes touching the edge of what we were previously capable so sweet. Without our previous perspective we would have nothing to gauge our progress.
This week, in post processing anyway, is about pushing my comfort level with software and challenging my aesthetic comfort. I have two very different images for this week, the first is of an MTA Ticket Window at Grand Central Terminal in New York City. I pushed and pushed and pushed till the photo looks like something out of a steampunk dream. I rather like the result, but I pushed this further than I would have ever thought to in the past.
While in New York, Pamela and I needed to cross the park. We were on the Upper West side and we needed to get to The Metropolitan Museum of art (Upper East side). We thought a walk across Central Park would be an wonderful way to take in some of the best sights in NYC. Honestly we just picked a path that cut straight through and left it to chance what we would find on our walk. We walked straight into a castle! Central Park NYC absolutely has a bit of whimsey! Apparently this is on of the best views in the park and it serves as a meteorological station taking temperate, wind speed, direction, etc. If you are on a random walk through Central Park, hope you hit this site. It’s quite a bit of fun!
Pamela had never been to New York. I felt this was something that really needed to be rectified. I have been saying for some time we needed to go and we finally cashed in some points and took a vacation.
The Flatiron building is awesome…the Flatiron building at night is stellar! I have a number of images to work on in the future, but for the first I wanted something that expressed a bit of the gritty nature of the city. It truly is a place like no other on Earth.
