Tag Archives: art

Museum Atrium

Museum Atrium
Museum Atrium

Museum Atrium. New York City. August 11, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Light patterns on the atrium wall at the New York Museum of Modern Art

I think I end up visiting the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) every time I visit New York City. It may be partly out of habit, but it is also because there are always things there to see. MOMA always features photography — though the work on display this time was not quite my cup of tea. There are special exhibits, and we were especially surprised and please by the Lygia Clark show. It is always hard to resist — we inevitably fail — visiting the regular collection of famous work in the main galleries.

For me, the space itself is an interesting photographic subject. To some extent it is a good place to photograph people, and I did a bit of that in one particular gallery displaying work that did not particularly impress me — though I noticed one particular museum attendant keeping a very close eye on me. She never said a word, but it seemed like she was always watching me, to the extent that she shows up in perhaps half of the photos I made in that exhibit! The building itself is fascinating, in terms of its own architectural details, how people inhabit the space, and how light plays on its shapes and surfaces. This photograph features the central atrium, which I have photographed in the past, crisscrossed by light patterns stretching down from the roof.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

At the Museum

At the Museum
At the Museum

At the Museum. New York City. December 29, 2013. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Feet, legs, carpet, and a bit of white wall at the museum

Yes. It is at the museum…

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Room 160, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Room 160, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Room 160, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Room 160, Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York City. December 29, 2013. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Visitors pass through Gallery 160, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

It was a cold and rainy day in New York. For the most part we were fairly lucky with the weather when we visited between Christmas and New Years, with mostly fair though cold weather. But we finally encountered a day on which it was not going to be pleasant to travel around a lot on the subway, so we decided to head to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Apparently about half of the people in New York City had the same idea! Although we arrived reasonably early, there was already a large line of umbrella-carrying folks standing in line, and once inside we found crowds everywhere. We were obviously not the only people to seek shelter in indoor activities. (For the most part the crowds in New York City don’t bother me too much, but on our subway trip back to our hotel after the museum visit I encountered the worst jam-packed subway that I had run into… and realized that this is not a place where I’m ever likely to live. Visit? Yes, and with pleasure!)

We have visited several times before, so we are starting to be familiar with a few sections of this huge museum. We visited a wonderful exhibit of Julia Margaret Cameron photographs (and realized how much of photographic portraiture she already understood more than a century ago) and a small exhibit of photographs from the past 40 years (some of which I liked a lot and some of which leaves me cold). We also wandered a bit, and when we entered this room not far from the main lobby, I spotted a stairway and though that it would be interesting to photograph the room from above. I was intrigued by the lighting, the crowds of people walking in every direction, their shadows, and the large figure of the statue in the center of the room. (As I photographed, using a small mirrorless camera, a guard must have thought that I was shooting video – which is apparently forbidden – and he started yelling at me from the lower level! I finished my shots and moved on.)

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Paint on Metal Wall

Paint on Metal Wall
Paint on Metal Wall

Paint on Metal Wall. Brooklyn, New York. December 27, 2013. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

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.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | FacebookGoogle+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.