Mid-Atlantic USA

I’ve spent the past few days in New York City knowing it would be my turn while visiting my home town.  I wanted to make a new image of New York and I wanted to keep with the theme of the wispy clouds and blue skies.  At roughly 10:30 this morning events came together and I was able to make this picture while driving on the West Side Highway.  This newest of New York skyline icons, the Freedom Tower, replaces the twin towers of the old World Trade Center.  We’re moving on… so, out with the old, in with the new, welcome back to the World Trade Center, New York City.

I’m fascinated by faces, that’s one of the reasons that environmental portraiture became such a large part of my business.  However, I’m also fascinated by the faceless.  A couple of my previous postings to the game have been faceless… the campaign poster with the face of the politician torn away, a portrait of a friend with his hands covering his face… it’s almost more telling that way. When I first saw Bob’s image of the Corvette headlight it was a small thumbnail image on the main game screen, the color manipulated to abstraction, I immediately thought it was a fencer’s mask.  Turned out, upon clicking to enlarge it, that it was a car headlight.  Russ must have thought the same thing initially, and he made an image of a fencer’s mask to respond to Bob’s. This image, a Lion Dancer* in the Chinese New Year parade in New York City’s Chinatown, transforms the celebrant into a faceless icon, yet there is a face.  It’s somewhat an abstraction as the face is alienized by its inherent unfamiliarity; intense colors; the profile view with only one eye and the motion blur created by both the subject and the photographer being in motion at the same time, yet some detail frozen by a portable flash unit I was using (yes, flash in daylight). *In this post I call it a Lion Dancer yet in the title I call it a Dragon Dancer.  Why the inconsistency?  The popular notion, at least in my perception, is dragon, hence the title.  But it’s actually a lion in Chinese folklore.  As perception changes, the original title remains the same. Backstory:  A few years ago I spent a day in New York City’s Chinatown making pictures of the celebrations, the first day and the last day. I was lucky to make a contact who was able to get me inside the bars (marchers at the front of the parade use wooden bars to push back the crowds that would otherwise overwhelm the lion dancers). One of the guys in the parade was a telephone installer who had done the installation of a PBX network for a major stock picture company (not the one I’m contracted to) and as soon as I mentioned I was shooting for stock, that was it, I was in! You really can’t get better luck than that. I spent the better part of the day walking             backwards and making lots and lots of pictures of the parade. My assistant kept feeding me loaded cameras with different lenses and flash units with fresh batteries so I could shoot really fast and I wouldn’t have to do anything but concentrate on making pictures. The photography went very well, I got some great stuff. I also nearly got my foot blown off! Doug was so busy changing film and lenses and keeping everything in the bag in the bag, that he never warned me (I guess because he didn’t notice) that I was standing on a mat of freshly lit firecrackers. Not only was there a lot of noise under foot, but there was this burning sensation as well. By the time I realized what was happening it was all over… my left foot was both burning and soaking wet. The firecrackers had blown a huge hole in the sole of my left shoe, and I was standing in a puddle. Kung hei fat choi!  

My image of New York City’s Chrysler Building follows the “blueness” of Russ Widstrand’s Emergence, the five triangular lights in each arc of the building reminiscent of the five fingers on each hand in Russ’ image. I inhabit the blue world, typically just before sunrise and just after sunset.  Everything turns a monochromatic cobalt blue at magic time and I exploit it on a regular basis.  This particular evening I was on a rooftop on Fifth Avenue, three blocks away.  I was in the midst of a shoot for the Warner Brothers film Batman & Robin* when I made this image with my 600mm/f4.0 lens (I know, most guys would have bought a car).  I love the way the stainless steel facade picked-up the dusky blue sky, the exquisite detail the lens produces, the blue on blue quality makes the hair on the back of my neck stand-up.   *When viewing the film, every time you see Gotham City you’re looking at my pictures of New York re-built to create the Gotham skyline.