I’ve been collecting images of NY’s ubiquitous Post No Bills stencils for over 20 years. This visit is no different. Here are 3 more examples.
Post no Bills
Category: documentary
Wall Art
The wall bordering a gas (petrol) station on 96th Street at First Avenue. It really does look like an artist’s work, though I’m sure it was just meant to cover graffiti. Here’s another view of the same wall in black & white:
Wall Art
National Barrier
or, The grass is always greener on the other side
In New York for a week or so, so expect a few NY pictures over the next week.
Our solutions are not so good
In fact, they’re rubbish
The Garden
This is the last installment (for now) of images inspired by Jim Roche’s Substack on John Gossage’s The Pond.
On the side street there’s a gate leading into the abandoned and overgrown garden. Once I went in and took a picture or two. On this occasion I discovered it had been secured with a thin twist of metal ribbon. I considered removing it temporarily, but decided to honour someone’s property rights and instead photographed at various angles and over the wall.
‘Round the Back
I continue to explore the house at the corner, following on from the last two days’ posts. After passing the side, I had a brief view over an ivied wall, of the back of the building, giving on to the garden.
One thing I did before shooting was switch the camera to shoot in Fujifilm ACROS, a rich black and white film stock – I was trying to get a full range of tones (of course, I was shooting raw, so all the colour information was captured but it was helpful to visualise it in B&W right through the viewfinder.
to be continued…
Around the corner
Continuing from yesterday’s post about photographing close to home à la John Gossage, as described in Jim Roche’s post on The Pond, I walked around the corner from the front of the house, shown in yesterday’s post, to this view from the corner. The property is massively overgrown, reminding me of how the Pevensie children first returned to Narnia, only to find that time moved so much more quickly there that familiar places were scarcely recognisable.
Peering through the dense foliage, one can still catch a glimpse of the building.
to be continued…
Close to Home
I’ve been reading some of Jim Roche’s posts on Substack lately, particularly one about John Gossage’s The Pond and another on The Absent Hand by Suzannah Lessard. These have inspired me to photograph closer to home, rather than awaiting opportunities to photograph farther afield.
On the corner of my street lies this seemingly abandoned building. There have been broken down cars lying in its forecourt, for a while there was a large tip (dumpster) on the street outside and all sorts of dilapidated furniture and old rubbish made its way out. For a long time the door hung open and one would occasionally be aware of people there, but for the last few months the door has been shut and some windows boarded up. There is a seemingly abandoned car sitting on the forecourt, it’s front windows open, its rear left tyre flat. No one comes or goes. It is surrounded on two sides by an overgrown garden.
to be continued…
Swim
Not sure what attracted me to this scene… perhaps the contrasting colours of the orange (or chrome yellow?) banner and the aqua see behind.
Fringe Elements
Save the Date! The Brighton Photo Fringe is coming from 2nd – 31st October. As a member of the Fringe Elements collective, we’re hoping to display our work on the 6 advertising hoardings shown above and below. I plan to take up 2 of the posters in a single hoarding with work from my project, Neither Here nor There. Watch this space for more details as they become available.
Portrait in Orange
As I passed this couple I couldn’t help notice their bright orange shirts. At the time I was working on a presentation for my photography group about colour and thinking about one type of colour image where a single colour pops out from an image. I walked back, complimented them on their incredibly bright orange shirts and asked if I could take their picture. This is one of 2 shots I quickly snapped before showing it to them and running on to my appointment.
Memento Mori
Dusk
Bruce Davidson
A couple of weeks ago we went to see Portrait of a City: A Century of American Photography at the Dulwich Picture Gallery. This was a very broad look at American, mostly “street” photography, mostly in New York, with women atypically well represented. Loads of canonical work, ending in this room of striking dye-transfer prints of Bruce Davidson’s subway work. Frequent visitors to this site may remember that Davidson’s East 100th Street was the launching point for my project on East Harlem.
Sunset at the Pier
The eclipse was totally done by this point but the light was golden.
Eclipse
A collage of images I shot from the Brighton Palace Pier, the evening of August 12th. We got 91% of a total solar eclipse. The images were shot through an ND filter, mostly at 1/1000th second at f/7. There was a festive atmosphere on the pier with families and children and the sharing of eclipse sunglasses.
Drink Driving
With, apparently, 8-10 people pedalling, we were walking at least as fast as the Beer Bike Tour!
Pride
We went to Rottingdean for their annual village fête on the day of the Pride parade this year, forgetting that there would be lots of road closures, so we wound up walking home to Hove from the Marina. Along the way, we met some of the celebrants who were happy to have their pictures taken.
Great Desire
I’ve photographed (and posted) this already but each time I’m there I want to try and get a better shot.