Tag Archives: new york

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Ben Is Watching

March 10, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A Brooklyn, New York wall

I generally make it a rule to not photograph graffiti, though it is not quite a hard and fast rule. I almost never photograph a subject with someone’s vanity tag on it, and in a few cases when a larger subject as been compelling I have removed or defaced the tag in post. There are probably a range of reasons that one might write or scribble or draw on public and private property, ranging from a poor sense of social belonging to a desire to produce something like art — so the decision to show or not isn’t without context.

In this case, the wall seemed to be one that had become, likely by more or less popular agreement (or a concession?) a place where such public art is perhaps not only tolerated but also expected. While a simple tag doesn’t usually interest me, here there were layers of text and imagery that had been assembled over time and then modified by weather, wear, and perhaps later contributors. Eventually, the accidental juxtapositions seem to take on their own lives, as in this vignette featuring a worn dollar bill image of Benjamin Franklin, and oddly anthropomorphic red and white and green shape, bits and pieces of paint, and the underlying old brick wall. And, of course, this is all very temporary — and probably transformed or gone by now.

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

Broken Glass, Spray-Painted Wall

March 8, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A shattered glass window and a spray-painted brick wall

This is another small and complex street vignette, found on a wall along a street in Brooklyn, New York while walking around making photographs and looking for a place to eat. This section of wall was covered with a lot of street art, layers of contributions from a large group of people over some period of time, no doubt.

There’s not a whole lot for me to write about this one, except that the juxtaposition of broken glass, a single clean vertical line, and the abstract shapes and colors on the right caught my attention. There appears to be some piece of paper behind the fractured glass, and it looks like it may hold some message, but the meaning remains unclear.

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

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Columns, Whitney Museum

February 28, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Columns, Whitney Musuem — Repeating forms of cylindrical columns

Repeating forms of cylindrical columns

I admit it — photographing at the new Whitney Museum in Manhattan almost felt like play. The building is interesting in and off itself, but especially interesting on the high and open outdoor terraces that thrust out from the building toward the city. Although there are no people in this photograph — in fact, I had to take some care to ensure that was the case — the location was also a prime place to photograph people.

These columns occupy a corner, up against a wall, on one of the upper floor outdoor terraces. Their positions allow light to shine on them from multiple directions and on this very cloudy day the light was soft and luminous. Although this is the sort of thing that I might prefer to shoot from the tripod, I was working in street photographer mode and therefore had to shoot handheld, carefully lining up the verticals, trying to obscure a few places where the background shone through between the columns, and then waiting for people to pass by and not be in the shot.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Black Star, Tiles and People

February 17, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

People standing on tile near Frank Stella’s “Black Star” at the Whitney Museum

On our December 2015 visit to New York City we had a chance to visit the new Whitney Museum for the first time. We see the early construction phases on several earlier visits when we went to Chelsea and were pleased to find that it is now open. We went there one morning, began on the top floor, and started to work our way down. (I’m a bit notorious for being able to spend what some regard as far too many hours wandering slowly through museums. Eventually the others in my party left. I stayed and finally joined up with them again hours later.)

The museum’s collection is, of course, fascinating. But the building itself also fascinated me — as a structure it its own right, its placement in its Manhattan surroundings, how it is used to display art, its outdoor areas, and the opportunities it gave me to include people in photographs. I did virtually no photography inside the building, but on the outdoor terraces and walkways it was an entirely different situation. These areas were perhaps the most attractive parts of the architecture for me, with upper levels thrusting out over the Chelsea landscape, and lower levels spreading out horizontally. From below it created a sort of industrial landscape of metal angles, and from above the views downwards were quite something. This photograph looks over one of the upper balconies and straight down onto a tile-covered terrace where Frank Stella’s “Black Star” resides and was being photographed and contemplated by visitors.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: new york

Ben Is Watching

Broken Glass, Spray-Painted Wall

Columns, Whitney Museum

Black Star, Tiles and People

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