Category Archives: New York
Photographing New York Road Runners’ Team for Kids
I got to photograph the Poland Spring Marathon Kickoff before the 2012 Marathon that, sadly was cancelled. But the kickoff was great. I covered Team for Kids, a group of runners who raise money for the New York Road Runners‘ school running programs. Many of the participants hadn’t been runners until they started training for the marathon with TFK and their volunteer coaches. So what’s my excuse for not running the races? Well… I have to photograph them!
Hurricane Sandy Recovery
I got to write a story on hurricane recovery efforts in the Rockaways, and photograph the destruction in Coney Island. The rest of the city has returned to normal, but the affected areas are in this for the forseeable future.
David + Erielle’s Central Park Wedding
David and Erielle live in Minnesota, but came to New York City for an intimate wedding in Central Park. They loved to pose and have fun with the portraits, so all I had to do was get out of the way and let them do their thing – they were so good, in fact, that passers-by in the park were cheering them on.
They were so flexible and good at New York, too. When the spot they had chosen for the ceremony got too crowded, they picked another; when Erielle’s limo didn’t show up, she hailed one on the street!
New Lower Manhattan
A few weeks ago, I spent two days walking around Lower Manhattan, taking pictures for New York Magazine of new places that have made the neighborhood more fun and liveable recently. It was a great time – I got to take real pictures in a way that was interesting to me, the light was sweet, and at the end of the last day I had great luck with evening light and a florescent doorway.
Self-Defense
Someone has been attacking women in my neighborhood. 10 women have been assaulted in the past seven months, and the police have yet to arrest a suspect. Tammyli Gonzalez of CrossFit 718 decided to take action, and hosts a class taught by Ariel Yarden at her gym. In these pictures, the pair demonstrate ways to escape an attacker.
On Broadway and Houston
A woman hailed a cab on Broadway and Houston Street, and another one took a picture.
Patty’s Boat
A hurricane whirled up the coast toward New York City, and Patty Condello readied his boat and cleaned his dock in Red Hook, Brooklyn. An ex-sanitation worker, Patty told me that Chinese people throw out heavy trash in red bags and walk to sweatshop jobs while everyone else waits out snowstorms indoors, that a row of police cars protected a municipal building while blocks of Sunset Park burned in the Seventies, and that he might ride out the storm in a shipping container so he could keep an eye on his boat. He wasn’t sure it was safe, but he hoped he might stop some debris just before it sank his boat in the rising waters.
What Becomes a Legend Most?
Last week I photographed Scott Kersner, the third-generation owner of Kersner Furs, in his wood-panelled shop in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. He showed me around his workshop and showroom, where I touched cuffs and capes, sheared fur and dyed fur, silver fox and mink, old coats and new designs. He locked vintage coats in storage closets and stroked silver-gray pelts; he sewed bits of fur into short coats and almost convinced me I needed one. His grandfather opened the shop in 1927. His son might take over when he finishes college. His customers bring in their coats to be restyled year after year. It seems likely that I need a mink.
Night Children Getting Down
This Saturday I put on some eye liner and photographed a Spank Rock, LMFAO and Ke$ha show at Jones Beach.
Clutches of middle school girls wore homemade, sparkly shirts and shouted with excitement. Shorts were universally short, and boys in tight pants drank sweet drinks hiding vodka*. Performers sang sexy songs about parties and sex, someone took a shot onstage through a beer bong, and my sister and I laughed and danced because that’s what you do when you’re surrounded by glitter and neon and nearly grown-up children’s excitement. An opening act relaxed drinking beer on their tour bus, joking about shows and each other, and employees enforced rules. Couples wrapped themselves in each other and made out intensely, ignoring streams of girls stalking by in heels and ripped fishnets. Ke$ha shouted “I fucking love you guys – now everyone go get laid!” and later, dads crossed their arms and waited by SUVs for their children to emerge and climb inside, shouting and singing through crowded parking lots.
*Allegedly – but I was a teenager once. So I think I know.
Work With Me Here, Picture
This one doesn’t fit in my edit, but I like it. So I’m putting in its own post, because this is my blog, and I make the rules.
After the Spank Rock/LMFAO/Ke$ha show at the Jones Beach Theater.