NEW YORK NEW YORK – We walked across the Manhattan Bridge from Chinatown to Dumbo today, in search of an image of the bridge on the Brooklyn side with my ICP rephotography class. There was a brief downpour while we were at the center of the bridge – we sought shelter and waited it out. All images with my Leica M and 28mm PC lens.
On this day one year ago: Lunch in Bedford.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Straight up in Manhattan. Tried this yesterday and didn’t like the result. Came back today with a different lens and different light. Leica Monochrom and 21mm Super Elmar lens.
On this day last year: Mary Karr.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Back in midtown for meetings. A bit of the Racquet Club’s Florentine exterior with Citicorp in the background, taken with my Leica Monochrom and 1959 Dual Range Summicron lens. Two frames stitched.
On this day last year: David Michelek.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Today I did homework for my rephotographing New York class. First I took the subway to 154th Street to find a house at 857 Riverside Drive (which oddly doesn’t face the Hudson River up here) that Berenice Abbott photographed in 1937. A poor jpg of Abbott’s original is the second photo below. The original is rather casually put together. The light is far from optional, accenting a bush on the far right and the house is obscured in shadows – it really looks like a snapshot. Number 857 was wedged between two larger apartment buildings -you see the building on the right, and the shadow of the building on the left – the sun was behind her left shoulder. I suspect that she shot number 857 because a wood frame house was unusual in Manhattan even in 1937 – I found no similar house in the area walking around for an hour or so.
Remarkably the house is still there. It’s had the gingerbread stripped off and has been badly “modernized”; it’s in the course of a further “renovation”. It’s clearly inhabited: someone has put cat food out in the foreground on the right. Abbott took the photograph literally pressed against the building to the left so she could show the view though the Charleston-style gallery on the left side of the house through to the river – a view that is now obscured by a building and a mature tree. So here you go: 857 Riverside Drive:
A second project for the day. James Van Der Zee was a photographic chronicler (among other things} of the Harlem Renaissance. His most famous image, and perhaps the most famous image from the Harlem Renaissance, is the second image below: a marvelously-turned-out couple in raccoon coats posed in front of a massive Cadillac on a street that is thought to be west 127th street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. There are various guesses at the exact location. One of them places the image at 247 West 127th Street, the site of the current PS 154 – the third image below. I’m not certain that I believe – I can just make our the first digit of the address on one of the buildings and it looks like it starts with a “1”. There is a row of a half dozen brown stones a few feet down the block; I managed to shoot a couple in their SUV in front of it.
On this day last year: Silver man.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Near the end of the busiest season of the year in my law practice. Taken on the street with my Leica Monochrom and 50mm Dual Range Summicron.
On this day last year: Harley.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – A couple from the street today. Taken with my Leica Monochrom and 1959 Leica Dual Range Summicron. The second images is three frames stitched.
On this day last year: Rabbit. A meal for one.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – A lot of pictures today. If you scroll down to May 17, 2013 you will see that Francesca, our daughter, graduated from law school one year ago. Well today, 368 days later, she was sworn into the New York bar. So the bar cram course, the bar exam, waiting for the results, gathering up details about her background, submitting a bunch of stuff to the character and fitness committee and getting a date to be sworn in take a year more or less. Congratulations Francesca.
After lunch I had the first session in a class at the ICP – we’ll be rephotographing iconic New York images. This is familiar territory for me starting with Mark Klett’s rephotographic survey and Douglas Levere’s rephotography of Berenice Abbott’s 1939 book, Changing New York. Abbott’s photographs are meticulously documented – many of her most famous works were done while she was employed by the Museum of the City of New York to document the City. After an hour of getting to know each other at the ICP and a half hour discussion of where to start we went down to the Flatiron Building to re-shoot Berenice Abbott’s famous 1938 image. This worked well for me because I own a print of this image – it’s in our front hall in New York.
I didn’t realize that we would be shooting so I was packing only my walk-around camera, my Leica Monochrom and a 1959 Dual-Range 50mm Summicron lens (the perfect kit to photograph Francesca earlier in the day). I needed a much wider lens for the Flatiron shot so I ended up stitching four frames. After fussing around a bit we figured out where Abbott was shooting from – it’s a traffic island now as I’m certain it was then. I’ve included a poor jpeg of Abbott’s original for comparison.
Anyway, Francesca outside of the First Department Courthouse.
Francesca and her “Don’t mess with me, I’m a lawyer” expression.
My rephotographic effort of the Flatiron Building:
The Abbott original:
A few more:
On this day last year: 11th Avenue Project.
