Category Archives: Photographs: New York City

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Barbershop, Manhattan

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Barbershop, Manhattan
Barbershop storefront in the Chinatown section of Manhattan

Barbershop, Manhattan. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Barbershop storefront in the Chinatown section of Manhattan

As I continue my somewhat binary posting pattern — street and urban photography one day, with nature, wildlife, and landscape the next — today I’m back in New York City, during out end-of-year December 2017 week spent there, visiting family, eating, walking, and doing photography. Oh, and freezing. We managed to arrive just before a bout of exceptionally cold weather — at least for these Californians — during which daytime temperatures didn’t always make it into the twenties. It didn’t snow until the final day, but it surely was cold enough.

The cold didn’t keep us indoors, though. We were out every day, walking through as much of Manhattan as we could. A typically walk started near our hotel at the end of Lower Manhattan and (if we didn’t get a head start on the subway) worked its way north along any of several paths. Eventually the cold and wind would become too much, and we would stop for coffee or food, then head back out. On one morning our uptown-bound route took us into the narrow streets of Manhattan’s Chinatown, a place I always like to see. (On our previous visit we stayed for a week on essentially the boundary between Chinatown and Little Italy.) Things here are often a bit ragged around the edges and it can be crowded, but there is plenty to see. The dense patterns of people walking the streets, the interiors of shops, the scenes on the sidewalks are all interesting.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Central Park, Winter

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Central Park, Winter
Bare trees and an empty plaza on a cold winter day in Central Park

Central Park, Winter. G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Bare trees and an empty plaza on a cold winter day in Central Park

It was an utterly frigid day in New York City when I made this photograph. This Californian is not really used to such weather, but we gave it a good try, heading out each day on long walks that sometimes lasted many hour despite temperatures around and sometimes lower than 20 degrees. (Some of you are used to that, but a “cold” midday temperature here in near-the-coast Northern California would be in the upper-forties.) Our morning began with an aborted attempt to visit the Guggenheim Museum — we made it there, got in line, stood there gradually getting colder and colder, finally figured out that the line wasn’t actually moving, gave up, and found a warm and cozy place to go eat and drink.

Afterwards we headed out on foot once again, eventually ending up back at Central Park. I’ve been there at different times of the year. In summer there are often many thousands of people in the park — walking, cycling, skating, sitting around, eating, lounging on lawns, and more. There are expansive green lawns and big, leafy trees. In winter those lawns die and the trees lose their leaves. There are people in the park, but only a tiny fraction of the number seen in summer, and most seem to be on their way somewhere else — probably somewhere else warm. But I like the park this time of year. The gray solitude of the place appeals, and the leafless trees permit more of the surrounding urban world to be seen. This little plaza, nearly empty, was along the east side of the park as we gradually worked our way to the lower end of the park.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Stairwell, Winter Shadows

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Stairwell, Winter Shadows
Shadows of bare winter trees on windows in a Metropolitan Museum stairwell.

Stairwell, Winter Shadows. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Shadows of bare winter trees on windows in a Metropolitan Museum stairwell.

This is perhaps a bit of a mind game of a photograph. I’ll explain why in a moment. I made it while visiting the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art on a cold winter day last December. We were there mainly to see the David Hockney exhibit and then, once we realized what it was, the remarkable Michelangelo exhibit nearby. It is also true that we were there on that particular day partly because that was when we happened to be in New York, partly because we wanted to see the exhibits, and partly because it was a freezing cold day! For visitors to New York City in winter, the museums are good options when it is just plain too cold for a lot of outdoor stuff. (Nonetheless, we still did do a lot of walking in this frigid weather.)

This little corner of the museum is at the end of a series of galleries where an open stairway connects several floors together. There are windows, but they are covered with a sort of fabric scrim that allows diffused light to enter, blocks views of the outdoor landscape, but does project the shadows of nearby trees. The bare, winter branches silhouetted on this window and others nearby caught my attention. But the more I looked the more I saw the almost bizarre and perspective-defying combination of lines from the angled wall, the floor and handrail, and more. In the end, this photograph is perhaps of several things, but also about the strange conjunction of their forms.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

The Office, Deconstructed

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The Office, Deconstructed
Abandoned and broken chairs abandoned on a Manhattan sidewalk

The Office, Deconstructed. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Abandoned and broken chairs abandoned on a Manhattan sidewalk

I’m no longer quite as surprised as I once was to see what finds its way to the sidewalks, curbs, and gutters in New York City. (I recently arrived at an understanding that people in such places focus more on the quality of their home environments and less on the public environment — beautiful, comfortably designed and equipped homes are found inside buildings that, from a certain perspective, look like dumps from the outside.) If you think about how many people live and work there, it boggles the mind to consider how much stuff flows in and out of the place, including an awful lot of stuff that simply needs to be discarded.

When I walked past this spot, located in an area of very narrow and twisting streets (which should narrow it down for New Yorkers), this particular pile caught my attention. Broken office chairs were piled on the sidewalk, completely blocking it. Nearby were a few other things we might associate with work/office: abandoned coffee cups, an empty cigarette carton. Heck, in a way you might even say there is a “corner” window. Of course, I noted other things, too: the angular and geometric forms of roll-up door, tiled wall, and the strange triangle near the top, plus the soft and blue light in this narrow spot where sun rarely shines, especially in the winter.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.