Governor’s Island is one of those New York spots where it seems as if the city is always trying to hype it up, and get people to go out and experience it.  After years of living here and never going, a Saturday afternoon found me waiting in the ferry terminal.  It was very clear we were among the few locals in the place.  This woman was clearly dressed very beautifully, but unfortunately failed to grasp the concept of bathroom lines.

This image was shot from the rooftop of an apartment building on Barrow Street in the West Village on July 4th. I didn’t have my tripod with me that night, so the trick here was to balance my camera on the ledge of the building without getting myself or it covered in the bird droppings everywhere.  The security guards from the building came up onto the roof before the fireworks started, and announced to the crowd that anyone ‘making noise’ during the fireworks would be asked to leave.  Never thought “ooooh and ahhhhs” could be disruptive, but I guess they didn’t want to draw attention to the prime viewing spot.  The photos I shot that night were worth the risk of getting dirty and staying quiet.

From Brooklyn to the West Village and back

This portrait resulted from a trip back to my friend Caitlin’s childhood home in the West Village. We had been living on our own in Brooklyn just long enough for the whole experience (more specifically, her unfriendly parrot, Ruth) to seem novel. Her parents fed us sandwiches and let us throw in a load of laundry. Maybe Caitlin’s knowing expression is such because although her parents are lovely, we knew we had our own home to tumble back over the bridge to.

Every bodega has one of these guys.  I took this picture after this particular guy was eyeing my camera with a questioning look.  We did a few different shots, but he was concerned that because he hadnt shaved that morning, he was going to look bad.  I zoomed out a little bit, and all of a sudden, “remember who you are” was included in my viewfinder as well.  Golden.

Chinese New Year

The images for this diptych were shot with a few weeks of each other. Wandering around late night Chinatown on a awkward, contrived first date, I saw the stairwell covered in the gorgeous rainbow confetti, a left over from the Chinese New Year festivities, ie, proof someone else had had a good time .  The bucket of bullet shells was from a session at a pistol club on 20th Street.  I love shooting, and usually go shooting with one of my best guy friends.  This image pairing makes me smile – to compare the lightness vs the heaviness of both situations and the patterns that represent them abstractly.