Reflections in new windows during reconstruction at the World Trade Center site, New York City, 2011.
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.
A study in right angles, MOMA courtyard, Manhattan.
This is a photograph from nearly a decade ago, made on one of our semi-regular visits to New York City. For some reason I ended up in the archive of raw files from that visit recently and I ended up working on this photograph. It turns out that it is quite similar to another I made at this same spot, but there are some subtle but important distinctions that convinced me to work on this version.
The camera position is a window facing this courtyard, a spot that most people probably walk right past on their way between floors at the Museum of Modern Art. I think I may first have been attracted by the elevated viewpoint, looking down into the courtyard where people may sit or walk. I also was fascinated by the dense cubic forms of the buildings and the strong perspective lines that they form.
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.
The corner of Nassau and Ann Streets, Manhattan. (Charles Ives fans may get the reference.)
Anne Street
Quaint name Ann street. Width of same, ten feet. Barnum’s mob Ann street, Far from ob-solete.
Narrow, yes, Ann street, But business, both feet. (Nassau crosses Ann Street) Sun just hits Ann street, Then it quits–some greet! Rather short, Ann Street.
– Maurice Morris
Fans of the work of American composer Charles Ives may “get” this. Not long ago I finally worked out the location of theManhattan street that gives the song its name, found it, and looked for the parenthetical cross street. Located on the fringes of the financial district it still has connections to this rather old poetic description. (Those who are inclined to find and listen to the song should look for some wonderful musical puns in Ives’ treatment.)
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.
“Man With Ice Cream Bar” — A man eating an ice cream bar on a Manhattan night
As I continue revisiting some old raw file archives from nearly a decade ago, I’ve been going through some photographs from a weeklong visit to New York City. We were there partly for music-related activities, partly for family reasons, and partly to make photographs. A few years’ distance from the immediate experience lets me see the photographs a bit more objectively, I think, and I’ve found several that I think are worth sharing now.
For five or six years I’ve been doing a lot of handheld night street photography, but this photograph comes from before that period —actually from a single evening in Manhattan when I began photographing in twilight and just kept going. There are multiple ways to “read” this photograph. I think that one initial approach may be less than complimentary to the subject, but the more I think about it the more I see other perspectives that are positive. I’ll leave it to viewers to sort that out!
