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 – More work on my rephotography class. Today we went to East 100th Street to rephotograph street scenes from Bruce Davidson’s seminal 1970 show at the Museum of Modern Art. Sample images from East 100th Street. This turned out to be difficult because the block that he shot this two-year project in has been thoroughly renovated. Here’s the best effort from the day for me. This is my shot of where 331 West would be today (see the original Davidson image below). Not my best effort – there are a number of obvious mistakes.
Here’s the original – which will give you a fair idea of how much Manhattan north of 96th Street has changed:
On this day one year ago: Oak tree.
BARRYTOWN NEW YORK – We drove over here this morning (Barrytown is a few miles north of Rhinebeck and a few miles west of Red Hook) for the wedding of two friends, Bill Clegg & Van Scott. As usual at these things my shortcomings as a wedding photographer were manifest, but I did get a few images of Francesca (our daughter) and Bill. Here you go:
NEW YORK NEW YORK – May Day. Not a big deal here in the US. I went on a hike with my friend John Novogrod. I’ve discussed on these pages in the past the difficulty that I have with Eastern landscape. Deciduous forest rather than the desert, cactus and sagebrush that I grew up with. I find it difficult to organize and really see. Here’s a better than average try – three frames stitched.
On this day last year: Egg crate building. Blah. Whatever. Meh. Yes, Woody, you can do better than this.
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 – A foodie day. A friend and I sponsor an annual Edwardian dinner so here we are after a great deal of wine. Still standing at least. Leica Monochrom and 35mm lens.
Halal dog? Same camera.
On this day last year: Joe Kanon.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I spend a lot of time looking up here. Why don’t more people do this? What you see sometimes amazes. Today “amazes” maybe an overstatement but a not bad image as I was emerging from the subway at 51st Street and Lexington Avenue. Taken with my Leica Monochrom camera and Leica 24mm Summilux lens.
On this day last year: This would have been better in B&W.
