Spectators at the 2015 TCS NYC Marathon, preparing to cheer for participants as they make their way through Brooklyn.
"Light at the End of the Tunnel"
I'm back! Here, look at this!
A young man waits for the F train at the York St. station, the last stop on the line before going into Manhattan from Brooklyn (or, the first stop in Brooklyn after leaving Manhattan)
9th St. (and a bit of 10th) Below 3rd Ave, Brooklyn
If you've read a couple of my previous blog posts, you know that I've been thinking about all of the changes happening around New York City. Part of that change manifests in the renaming and re-bordering of neighborhoods. My own home sits on a street that is a kind of "no man's land" between South Slope and Gowanus, its designation changing depending on who you speak with and their own time in the City.
While the Deli is a mainstay of NYC life, the luncheonette is rapidly becoming a piece of history.
"Gowanus" as a neighborhood is a fairly new label. Large chunks of it was previously considered South Slope, Park Slope, or Carroll Gardens. A quick Google search for "Brooklyn Neighborhood Maps" combined with a Craigslist search for rentals in Brooklyn reveal how many different opinions there are about where and what each area is called. Although it may seem trivial what you call a neighborhood, it can make a huge difference in terms of the rent you pay and the cost of nearby amenities. Remember Elaine's delivery dilemma in that classic episode of "Seinfeld"? The struggle is real. Are you in the up-and-coming new area with massive growth potential? Are you in a solidly family-oriented and quiet neighborhood with the best public schools and hospitals? Will you be surrounded by artists and students or lawyers and techies? Your neighborhood's name can instantly reveal (or at least, give you a decent educated guess) the answers to those questions.
The shipping department of a clothing manufacturer.
I love wandering around this store. Some of the stuff is a bit pricey, but you can definitely find a bargain if you look hard enough.
This bright green storefront definitely catches your attention on the street. Also the fact that they sell used books along with reclaimed lumber.
I walked down 9th St. and a little bit of 10th St. below 3rd Ave because it cuts through some of the disputed border areas. It has a very strange mix of old industrial, residential, and new business up and down the street. And of course, you also get to cross the 9th St. Bridge that allows boats and other water vessels to pass through the Gowanus Canal (it puts the "fun" in Superfund!). I actually ended up arriving at the bridge just as a boat was coming through, a barge of trash attached to it. The smell was...intoxicating, in the most ironic and pun-filled way possible.
Waiting for the 9th St. Bridge to come back together and let us pass.
The subway station at Smith-9th St. has been undergoing construction and upgrades, and the modern architecture and shiny materials provide a striking contrast to the old luncheonette and deli below it. Across the street from the station sits a car wash/U-Haul parking lot that somehow seems perpetually dusty and never quite legitimate.
Shiny, dusty, decrepit, and new.
This mish-mash of industrial, commercial, and residential has made me wonder which will eventually win out. HAHA, just kidding, it's gonna be residential whether it's through legal means or not. Just like in Chelsea and the Lower East Side and Red Hook and Williamsburg--where abandoned factories became trendy lofts and condos--these strange brick buildings will probably transition into palatial multi-million dollar dwellings within my lifetime. I'm holding out hope that this portion of 9th St. between Smith and 2nd Ave. remains primarily industrial and commercial, with many of the spaces being rented out to musicians and artists that need studios for their work. The "next-big-thing" could be inside that brick building on 9th St. just before the bridge, recording their master track. I can only hope they live long enough to enjoy their success, as the toxic fumes wafting from the Gowanus during the summer months are difficult to avoid.
The Kentile Floors sign used to set atop the building in the right-hand side of the picture.
*ting* *sparkle sparkle*
You also can't help but notice the elevated train tracks, slicing through 9th St. before running parallel to 10th St. Sometimes it's funny for me to see these shining metal trains reflecting the sun's rays when just a few decades ago, Bruce Davidson captured the gritty, graffiti covered trains and their riders in his iconic series of photos about the New York City subway system. As much as we bitch and complain about the fare hikes, the occasional foul smelling train car, the delays, the inconvenient construction and repairs on lines (I like to mock the L Train riders as much as the next person, but I feel pretty terrible for them right now)--it's still amazing how efficiently it does run on the whole, especially since it's a 24 hour service (I'm glaring at you, BART, and your hilariously inadequate hours of operation).
And finally...here's a photo of a pizza place. Because I'm pretty sure I'm morally obligated as a New York resident to post one. Also, their to-go slices are delicious.
Pizza. Nom.
"Man & Friend"
A man kneels next to his dog at the Prospect Park Farmer's Market (April 25, 2015)
Happy Holidays!
Resolutions for 2015
Happy Holidays, lovely people! Christmas came and went in a flash, and 2015 is quickly approaching. It's really hard to believe that we're halfway finished with this decade. As a kid, 2015 seemed impossibly far away, but now that it's here, I hope we can all make the best of it.
For 2015, I resolve to be a better blogger for all of you. My updates are so sporadic that it annoys me! It helps that my other resolution is to take even more photographs and work hard at improving my skills. If you need a photographer for events or portraits, don't hesitate to tap me on the shoulder--I'm open to everything (as a photographer, you nerds) in 2015!
I'm also going to try and get back into the running groove. I had some good momentum going in the last half of 2014, but a minor knee thing (I don't even deserve to call it an injury) derailed me. I enjoyed it when I did it, so hopefully I can get back to it soon.
How about you? Any resolutions you're committing to for 2015?
Preview
Also, keep an eye out for new galleries and links to the last show I shot for 2014. Featuring Adult Mom, Manors, Free Cake for Every Creature, and Jawbreaker Reunion at Silent Barn! An excellent showcase brought to the people by The Le Sigh, a blog that features women in music and art. The galleries will be posted on New Years Eve, but here's a little taste:
Adult Mom
Manors
Jawbreaker Reunion
Free Cake for Every Creature
So go forth, live your lives to the fullest, and ring in 2015 with the loudest cowbell you can find!
Update: ArtPhotoArt
I'm very happy and excited to announce that I've recently become a member of ArtPhotoArt, a fantastic studio and gallery in Bushwick (that's in Brooklyn for all of you non-NYers). It's an outrageously affordable option for photographers that need a studio space and access to basic equipment.
A peek inside the studio. (photo courtesy of ArtPhotoArt)
But what really sold me on joining was the sincerity and passion of ArtPhotoArt's founders--Patricia Maldonado and Ryan Bevilacqua. Patricia and Ryan spent two years running Loft594 and bring their experience and knowledge of the Brooklyn art scene with them, recently curating a show featuring artwork inspired by the borough, "My Muse, Brooklyn". Follow ArtPhotoArt on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for news about future events and shows!
Hey, that's my picture and name on the Members page!
So what does this all mean for me? Well, it means I am more available for portraits and studio work! Need some new headshots? Want to take a family portrait to send grandma and grandpa back home? Contact me with details and let's work something out!
This also means that I will hopefully be able to pursue some ideas I've had written down forever. I think my early New Year's Resolution will be to complete one of these projects and share it with the world before 2016 comes knocking. Who knows, maybe I'll even finish two projects. Whoa, I know--ambitious. ;-) And yes, I just used an emoticon there. Deal with it.
If you want to collaborate or have had a burning desire to get a project rolling, I'd love to hear about it. TIS THE SEASON TO GET CREATIVE, FA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA!
Sleaford Mods, The Rogers Sisters, and The Gotobeds @ The Wick
On the last Saturday of November 2014, Sleaford Mods made their US debut at The Wick in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. They, along with the opening acts--The Rogers Sisters and The Gotobeds--sounded on point and filled the relatively large Brooklyn space with energy and intensity. I really enjoyed shooting this show (despite the pretty dim lighting) and hope to catch these bands again soon.
Sleaford Mods
The Rogers Sisters
The Gotobeds
Dread Scott, The Raveonettes, and Coves in "Events & Shows"
Sune Rose Wagner of The Raveonettes
I recently shot The Raveonettes and Coves at The Music Hall of Williamsburg for Impose Magazine. Photos from that set (and additional photos that I had wanted to include but couldn't due to submission restrictions) can now be found on the "Events & Shows" page.
Coves
Also newly added to "Events & Shows" are photos I took on my iPhone of artist Dread Scott's performance "On the Impossibility of Freedom in a Country Founded on Slavery and Genocide". It was, to say the least, a powerful and moving commentary on race, culture, history, and community without a single word being spoken. I urge you to click the above links to learn about Dread Scott and this piece. I've also uploaded a slow-motion video of a portion of the performance below.
Dread Scott faces this fireman and the blast of water coming from the hose.
Soon I'll be off on a little trip outside of NYC, and I will hopefully bring you some fresh photos from the lands beyond Brooklyn in the next couple of weeks.
New Sets of Photos in "Events"
Ahoy-hoy, lovely readers!
I've added photos to the Events page from a sold-out show I shot for Impose Magazine earlier in September. Killer lineup that night at Union Pool--BOYTOY, The Mystery Lights, and headliner Shannon and The Clams.
It was one of the first times I had to photograph a performance while simultaneously pushing back the mosh pit. You know you're getting older when your first thought is, "GAH, PROTECT THE DELICATE PHOTOGRAPHY INVESTMENT IN MY HANDS!" instead of "HELL YEAH PUNK ROCK!"
Here are a few highlights you can click on to get to the complete galleries:
The Mystery Lights making use of mysterious lighting
BOYTOY. Lowlight and lots of movement = blur
Shannon and The Clams in all of their sparkly glory.
More photos from the recent Raveonettes/Coves show at Music Hall of Williamsburg are coming soon!
I <3 NY
More photos of the WTC Memorial Lights and Freedom Tower will be up soon. But let's just enjoy the view for now...
The Unsettling Nature of "A Subtlety" by Kara Walker (Part 2)
Kara Walker's Sphinx inside of the Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
This is the second part of a two-part post about my thoughts and reactions to artist Kara Walker's "A Subtlety", which recently finished it's run at the Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg.
Visit the exhibit's official website here for more information and the curatorial statement.
View my photos from the exhibit here.
There she was. A combination of an iconic ancient achievement, more recent historical racist and misogynistic imagery, and Walker's artistry--a gigantic "Sphinx-turned-Mammy", laid before us between the load bearing steel beams holding up the factory.
She looked imprisoned from certain angles. Flanked by those enormous bars, it was as if this entire space was actually a cell block on display for our enjoyment, attendees gawking at this defiantly regal prisoner. It brought to mind the racist tones of the fictional King Kong, a beast chained to a stage for the audience to "Ooh" and "Ahh" at, our privileged positions as educated art lovers and socially conscious citizens convincing us that we were simply "appreciating" what's on display. However, we all could have very easily turned Walker's work into a farcical flavor of the week by falsely believing that society has moved beyond the behavior and consequences of our recent ancestors. We could have been (depending on how you want to view it) either reinforcing some sort of evil or destroying some sort of compassion.
Behind bars.
Or I'm overthinking it. That's what was so powerful about this exhibit for me: it provoked so many feelings at once that it became difficult to separate what I was feeling and why. In that space with that exhibit at that time, everything I thought and felt became so mish-mashed that I'm still not sure if I'll ever straighten it out.
Let's be clear, though--this was a very large piece of art that required vision, craftsmanship, and planning. The fact that it could be constructed and maintained over several weeks of stifling New York City heat was amazing. Additionally, she ingeniously combined some of the most iconic and upsetting imagery in African and African-American history into a single, biting statement piece, something in which all of us could instantly recognize the powerful contradictions. I was (and still am) in awe of Walker's artistry and ability to incorporate so many visual signals into a cohesive symbol.
But then, those signals did exactly what they were supposed to do. They brought to mind the exploitation, violence, misplaced contempt, and brutality that African-Americans and other people of color have suffered throughout the history of the United States in the name of profit, superiority, and divine directive. Slavery, Jim Crow, The Trail of Tears, "Assimilation", Yellow Terror, Nativism, anti-Union, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, etc.--people of color have never not been a target of hatred and paranoia by the majority and establishment. And it's not just "white people" (a term so vague and fluid that quotation marks are necessary) that are guilty of these acts; people of color have committed hate crimes against each other, too. We're all guilty, just some more so than others and with some attempting to make amends more than others. It's tragic. It's traumatic. It's a part of our shared history.
And it was on display before us, her white, sugary skin glimmering in the sunlight.
The Sphinx laid there, head held high, her large and exaggerated breasts resting in between her cat-like arms. Trying to figure out how to take photos of the sphinx created an uncomfortable feeling for me. Getting too close seemed disrespectful to the work, and it also put you in the temporary spotlight since most of the crowd was also keeping a decent distance away. But if I didn't get close enough, I would have missed some very interesting angles and photographs of the work. I decided to stay low to the ground and get as far in front of the group as possible without angering the volunteers from Creative Time.
A man in a hat and shorts stands before the Sphinx, just inches away from the delicate white sugar that we were instructed to not touch.
However, other's did not seem as shy as I was, moving toward the front of the Sphinx to take selfies or pose with friends and family for photos. Just as with the molasses statues of slave children, people were smiling and looking very happy to be in front of the giant sugar sculpture. I can't say that it was upsetting at the time; I would characterize my initial reaction as confused or puzzled. At least no one was mocking the naked figure or making obscene gestures while I was there. In retrospect, that seems like a pretty low standard of behavior to expect from adults. At best they weren't acting like juvenile racists? Hmm.
I made my way to the back of the sphinx where her prominent backside, exaggerated vulva, and almost childlike feet were positioned. The crowd in this area seemed more...scandalized? But with that giddy, middle school whisper lingering in the air. To be blunt, they were acting like they've never seen a vagina before or what comes with it. The men in particular did little to hide their snickering. One group of three men, around their mid-20s gleefully took a picture with the Sphinx's backside, their arms in the air and big grins on their faces. It clearly made some of the other attendees uncomfortable, but before any one could say anything (or could work up the courage to confront these strangers), they were finished and walking toward the exit. After they moved, a white father took a smiling photo with his black teenage daughter in the same spot the three men had just been. The daughter looked uncomfortable but dutifully posed for the picture. A Creative Time volunteer leaned against one of the steel beams, making sure no one stepped on the surrounding sugar scattered at the feet of the Sphinx. I took my photos and moved on.
The backside of the Sphinx. A Creative Time volunteer looks at the crowd that has formed.
A closer side-view of the Sphinx's kerchiefed head, bringing to mind the care-giving, worker Mammy stereotype.
Focusing on her full lips. Her blank stare still makes me uncomfortable.
I circled back around toward the front of the Sphinx, wanting to get a few more shots of her face. The neatly tied kerchief wrapped around her head brought to mind the character Mammy from "Gone with the Wind", played by Hattie McDaniel. McDaniel won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role, the first African-American to ever win an Oscar...Scarlett O'Hara's loyal servant. On one hand, it was a major accomplishment to be recognized by the Academy. On the other hand, the recognition was because she so accurately played into the stereotype that white culture expected blacks to emulate. As a modern viewer, the irony is enhanced by presenter Fay Banter's speech that implied that McDaniel's nomination, "enables us to embrace the whole of America...and pays tribute to those who have given their best regardless of creed, race, or color." She sounds so earnest in her belief as she reads the words, that she truly believes this will change everything. What was even more moving was McDaniel's acceptance speech. It was a chance to hear the actress behind the roll speak confidently and with grace about winning the award. No Mammy kerchief, no servants clothes draping her frame, as she tells the Academy that she, "sincerely hopes that [she] will always be a credit to [her] race."
I'm not trying to take away from McDaniel's accomplishments. It's difficult to be a female person of color today, I can't imagine what she had to endure personally and professionally to become successful in her field when Jim Crow still ruled the land and Brown v. Board was still over a decade away. However, the similarities in how people have reacted to McDaniel's performance and how we have reacted to Walker's exhibit can't be ignored.
We're so proud and self-congratulatory on how much progress we've made, that things are really going to be different now because we get it. But how well have we really done if the kerchief around McDaniel's head in 1940 and the kerchief adorning the Sphinx in 2014 can both still be met with such casual acceptance, as such an easily identifiable marker of a racist caricature? If we have progressed so greatly, why can't we shake the Mammy symbolism and all that comes with it from our collective cultural iconography? Is it because we don't want to, don't care to, or don't feel the need to? How many generations will it take before someone can stand before the kerchiefed Sphinx and say, "I don't know what that means"? Or is the most crucial step the one that comes before that: when a person stands before that same image and can't bring himself to smile or pose or jovially take a photo because he both understands and empathizes with what that symbol means, appreciating the history, context, and painfully thorough degradation of human beings that the kerchief represents.
Perhaps this is the most unsettling aspect of Walker's exhibit, that she forces us to think about how far we actually have come if all of these images can still come to embody so much pain and suffering but be met with such casual indifference, or worse yet, pleasure.
They're in the process of taking apart the Sphinx and sugar slave children, it's sweet aroma undoubtedly wafting down the East River and into the bay.
The Unsettling Nature of "A Subtlety" by Kara Walker (Part 1)
Ironically, the stoic, blank stare of Walker's "sphinx-turned-mammy" gazes into nowhere at the abandoned Domino Sugar Factory in Brooklyn as viewers could look nowhere except at her.
This is the first part of a two-part post about my thoughts and reactions to artist Kara Walker's "A Subtlety", which recently finished it's run at the Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg.
Visit the exhibit's official website here for more information and the curatorial statement.
View my photos from the exhibit here.
Before I could even enter the Domino Sugar Factory building that houses Kara Walker's "A Subtlety" (or "The Marvelous Sugar Baby"), I stood in a line that ran almost 1.5 miles long, stretching along Kent Ave. in the trendy Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg. Although the air did not hang as heavy with heat and moisture as it had the past week, the sun blazed high in the sky and fell hard on our shoulders. But it was the last day to view the exhibit, so we waited patiently for our chance as sweat escaped from our skin.
I had gone to the exhibit by myself. I had plenty of time while waiting in line to think about the various reactions that critics and lay persons have had to it and wonder how I would react to it. Would I cry? Would I be bored? Would I not "get it"? Would I wish there was more? Would I think she had gone too far? I tried not to speculate too much or else I would bias myself into a corner, and this was clearly an exhibit that demanded an open mind and appreciation of context.
But there was one article in particular--Nicholas Powers's "Why I Yelled at the Kara Walker Exhibit"--I couldn't shake. If you haven't already read it (and I recommend that you do), Powers describes the upsetting and disrespectful behavior of some attendees while viewing the Sphinx. I won't go into detail here because I can't do it the justice that only Powers' first hand account and reflection can give, but he bravely and correctly chastised other exhibit-goers who neither showed respect nor any appreciation of what the piece represented/could represent. Of course, artwork is subject to a variety of interpretations and reactions. However, what angered Powers was not something he viewed as a misinterpretation or differing opinion of the art, but rather a lack of effort or sincerity in trying to appreciate Walker's work as laid out in the curatorial statement or understood through Walker's comments in the numerous interviews she's done with the media. He also brings up the responsibility of the artist and the exhibit's curators to provide a historical context and informed space to assist viewers in understanding the nuance of the piece. It's very difficult (if not impossible) to defend, "a balding white father, posing with his son next to one of the boy statues, his arms folded across his chest 'gangsta' style as the mother took a photo" as thoughtful awareness or reflection of "A Subtlety"'s existence.
So I prepared myself for the possibility of witnessing the same behavior, but I left all other expectations about the exhibit behind me at the end of that 1.5 mile long line.
As I walked from the main gate to the entrance of the exhibit (which I would estimate to be about 20 or 30 yards in distance), I could smell a distinct sweetness in the air. It was not the type of sweetness that radiates from an oven filled with fresh-baked chocolate cookies, nor was it a floral fragrance wafting through the air like that of jasmine in the summer--it was a sweetness in which, if breathed long enough, you could detect something foul and rotten just underneath it. It brought to mind a half eaten caramel apple with flesh that had begun it's decomposition in the hot August sun.
I had not even entered the exhibition space, and I was nauseous.
The smell only intensified upon entering the factory building, but the prospect of viewing the Sphinx-turned-Mammy up close and in person pushed aside my minor physical discomfort. The entrance is at the far opposite end from the Sphinx's location, but you could plainly see how large the piece was, even from across the gigantic room. As you look up and around the factory, you realize how massive the pieces of machinery it once housed must have been, cranking and turning and churning out the refined white commodity for decades. The factory workers must have felt like ants, scurrying and moving around the sweet piles of sugar surrounding them. The exhibit was dimly lit by artifical light (although that may have changed if I had attended later in the day as the sun fell), relying primarily on the natural light that filtered through skylights and windows located on the upper-parts of the wall, practically connected to the roof. This must have been a particularly cruel part of working at the factory: to work only hundreds of feet away from the shimmering waters of the East River with Manhattan sitting just across the way, but only seeing the idyllic view when clocking in and out for the day. Even the discolored, paned windows high above their heads couldn't provide a clear view of the blue sky.
The head of the Sphinx was positioned underneath one of the skylights, creating a very dramatic illumination of her face and breasts at high noon.
As I walked along, I saw that Walker had dotted the floor space with the life-sized sugar/molasses sculptures of slave children carrying baskets, all of them with a heartbreaking smile on their lips, as if the unbearable and literally back-breaking work that their real-life counterparts had endured could be smiled through. Looking at these sculptures, dripping with the sticky liquid of melting caramelized sugar, I felt a pang of sadness move through me. I took a photo and looked through my viewfinder. The photo staring back at me just made it all worse.
One of the slave children sculptures at the exhibit
The miracle of the camera lens is that it can reveal to us the details in color, shape, and form that the naked eye can often miss or is incapable of processing. As I looked at the photo of this sugar-child, I made an instant connection to photos I've seen before, photos of children suffering through adult-conjured conflict, unfairly enveloped by rains of wrath and fire so maliciously dropped upon them from the skies.
Carrying his basket, his smile frozen in molasses.
The sugar sculptures looked like the burn victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of WWII, burn victims across Vietnam during the conflict that scorched their countryside. Walker explains that, "[t]he thought process had to do with molasses and the byproducts of the sugar refining process, and molasses as the byproduct of slavery." Atomic Bombs, Napalm, Sugar--in this context, all involved in the dominance and destruction of the "other" with no reprieve even for innocent children...
...smiling at us. As attendees took pictures, some smiled back.
Part Two of "The Unsettling Nature of 'A Subtlety' by Kara Walker" soon to follow, focusing on the Sphinx. Make sure to view my gallery of photos from the exhibit here.
Winter, The Friend That's Trying Too Hard
Get out of the way, Winter. You're blocking my shot.
Click on the image to see more photos of snow covered Brooklyn.
Oh, Winter. I usually love you...but...it's really hard to want to hang out with you after you've invaded every moment of my life like this. "Hey guys, where are you going?" "Guys, wanna hang out? No? Whatever, I'm here, let's party!" "Guys, does this snow make me look fat?" And whenever we hang out, you don't even pick up after yourself. You either leave your slippery ice patches around for us to fall and break a hip or that gross, grey slushy crap that some manages to seep through our waterproof boots.
Not cool, Winter 2014. Not cool.
But when you're decent and kind, you create some really special moments that we appreciate. So let's keep them special by keeping them few and far between.
Love,
Nicole (and the other 90% of the U.S.)