Category Archives: Photographs: New York City

Ding

January 23, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A pedestrian walks past a New York City post office building.

An apology might be appropriate for this photograph, which might be the oddest Christmas Day photograph of 2013. We had arrived in New York City the previous evening, and when we woke up on Christmas morning in Manhattan things were relatively quiet. We had an afternoon engagement in Brooklyn, but plenty of morning time to kill before that, so we figured that we might just take a (rather cold) walk deeper into Lower Manhattan, and we ended up heading toward the World Trade Center site.

Because there were so few people – and so few cars – out this morning, certain photographic opportunities arose that might not usually be easy or even possible here. You can bet that on a more typical day this street would have been filled with vehicles and the sidewalk filled with other pedestrians. But on this quiet day it was much easier to photograph unobstructed views or to find an individual figure in this urban landscape. As this man in black strode purposefully (very purposefully for Christmas day!) past this post office building I saw that I might have a brief opportunity to frame him against the architecture of the building and as soon as I saw this particular shot, a little voice in my head said… “Ding!” (Sorry. But probably not sorry enough.)

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Photographs: Abstract, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Textures, Photographs: Urban/Street

Paint on Metal Wall

January 21, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Colorful patches of spray paint on a metal wall, Brooklyn, New York

While wandering around in the DUMBO area of Brooklyn, between a walk in one direction on the Brooklyn Bridge and a walk back in the other direction on the Manhattan Bridge, we walked up some streets under the flyover at the Brooklyn end of the Manhattan Bridge. This is not what you might think of as a “special” area, being beneath a bridge and containing at least some of the expected forms of urban decay. Surprisingly though there were some interesting things to see here – nice light on this day and some urban/street subjects.

As we walked up one narrow street we passed, as I recall it, some storage yards and similar that were fenced off from the roadway and sidewalks. I think this was part of a section of metal fencing along the sidewalk. I remember looking at this very bizarre pattern of colorful paint and wondering how it got there. There were no signs on the wall at this point, but it looked like someone must have spray-painted some objects in front of the wall, and done so more than once and with a wild variety of colors – blue, hot pink, fluorescent green, several shades of hello, orange, black, and more. This accidental art seems to be the result of the creation of something else that was nowhere to be found.

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Graffiti on the Roof

January 19, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Grafitti on urban roofs beyond cyclone fence near the Manhattan Bridge, New York City

This is another photograph from our “hiking day” in New York City during our December 2013 visit. It wasn’t quite our plan when the day started, but we ended up walking from our Canal Street Hotel down to the Brooklyn Bridge and across, then around the DUMBO area of Brooklyn, and back across the Manhattan Bridge to the city again. The two bridges are a study in contrasts. Brooklyn Bridge is, of course, a huge tourist destination and walking across it is almost a requirement for New York visitors and others. Even on this very cold – sub freezing – winter day there were thousands of people crossing. The Manhattan Bridge, on the other hand, is a rather lonely place for pedestrians. we had been warned that it is tremendously noisy, since above ground transit trains cross it only feet from the narrow pedestrian walkway.

Probably because it has not been spiffed up to be a tourist attraction, the Manhattan Bridge also has a lot more aesthetic rough edges. The bridge structure seems mostly to be utilitarian steel, trains run constantly and not far from the walkway, and especially at the Manhattan end the bridge passes above some neighborhoods that don’t appear to be exactly upper class. Looking down from the bridge I saw some of the most extensive graffiti I have seen… on the roofs of buildings, where it is only visible from the bridge and not at all from the streets below. Most of the time I make it a rule to not photograph graffiti, but here it was so extensive and so established that it seemed worth it to make a few photographs through the cyclone fence protecting the bridge walkway.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Brooklyn Bridge, Lower Manhattan

January 17, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The Brooklyn Bridge and buildings of Lower Manhattan, New York

Like many of my stories, this one involves a very long hike, challenging weather, two river crossings, a landscape of beautiful light and evocative atmosphere… and New York City? Indeed. It did not quite register with me that on this day we walked from our Canal Street hotel, across the Brooklyn Bridge (in sub-freezing temperatures), around areas of Brooklyn, and then back across the Manhattan Bridge to Canal Street and back to our hotel. The whole thing evolved organically, and we did not originally intend to do so much walking. There are days when I walk less than that during back-country Sierra Nevada trips!

We were meeting people from Brooklyn, but we figured that after a morning walk in Lower Manhattan that we would likely either meet them on the Manhattan side or take the subway over to Brooklyn – but when we found ourselves near the bridge we decided to walk across, and we met them mid-span. The very cold air was also blue-gray with haze, so I think I was in black and white mode as we walked across, thinking about how to use the haze. We arrived in Brooklyn, and eventually ended up in roughly the DUMBO (look it up!) area, where we ate, shopped a bit, and wandered. From there we decided to walk back to Manhattan via the Manhattan Bridge. If you have walked the Brooklyn Bridge – and who hasn’t? – I recommend this alternative for a more “real” and a bit earthier view of things. In contrast to the typical mob scene on the Brooklyn Bridge, there was almost no one else walking the Manhattan – perhaps because it also carries very loud subway trains, has a much narrower walkway, and starts and ends in somewhat less well-known areas. But the view of the Manhattan Bridge, East River, and Lower Manhattan from this bridge is, I think, better than that from the Brooklyn Bridge. In this photograph the afternoon light was essentially back-lighting the tall buildings and the Brooklyn Bridge, and clouds gave some texture to the sky.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Category Archives: Photographs: New York City

Ding

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Paint on Metal Wall

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Graffiti on the Roof

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Brooklyn Bridge, Lower Manhattan

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Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.

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Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.