Tag: Manhattan

Bild

Javits Center, New York

In years past, there was a large photo expo at the Javits Center every October. This stopped with the pandemic and has not been re-instituted. One of the frequent features was camera, flash and software vendors setting up booths where hired models would pose for the overwhelmingly older male photographers to “test” the vendors’ wares. This was becoming a little difficult to justify, especially following #me_too and I seem to recall that in the last year or so of these events, models were less scantily clad, some were male, and fewer booths hosted them at all. This year, B&H hosted their own expo, Bild (German and Yiddish for picture), and I was surprised to find the models were back in force. This one was near the bathrooms where I waited while a friend was inside and I found her attire visually interesting. Alas, when I turned back for another shot, she’d been replaced by a less-well accoutred, sequin-y colleague.

Resting for a Minute

35th St and Eleventh Avenue, New York

Continuing on my walk down to the Javits Center, I kept taking pictures of people in the street, so now we’ve moved beyond an occasional ethical lapse into full-blown hypocrisy. But I liked the symmetry of the two men with their heavy bags, baseball caps, hands on hips, and smiles, with the shadows and trees splitting the image down the middle. Irresistible.

The Intervention

44th St and Eleventh Avenue, New York

Contravening the street photography ethics previously mentioned, I took a few shots of this group as I passed, drawn by some of the dramatic gesturing. I heard the man on the left saying he wouldn’t continue the conversation with the participation of the man on the right and the woman’s rejoinder was that he would remain part of the conversation since he also cared about the baseball-cap man. Of course, I have no idea what they were really discussing but it was impassioned.

Fence and Wall

Eleventh Avenue, New York

One thing I was looking for on this trip was back plates for additional images in my Word series, so I took lots of pictures of walls and architecture, not all so fascinating, but you may see them again if they do become backgrounds to future creations.

Birdman

Back from my travels. Over the next week or so, I’ll be posting snapshots from my travels in New York and Chicago. This was a trip to catch up with friends and family and take care of NY personal business. So it was extremely fulfilling in those areas, not so productive on the photography front.

57th St and Broadway, New York

My current ethics of photography do not really include taking shots of people in the street without their consent and/or collaboration. In this case, I crouched down in front of him so he knew I was there and tourists were clearly photographing him with their phones from bad vantage points, and he was not complaining so I took it he was tacitly consenting. I will probably post a few other street shots over the coming days from this trip that contravene this personal rule of mine, where, for one reason or another, I felt taking the shot was validated in some way – we shall see…