Photoblogging
The last new image I posted on my photoblog was on December 7th, 2006 (a date that will live in…. something.) What happened? Well if you look at the images I was taking at the time you will notice that they weren’t taken with a lens. I broke it in my bag and was too poor to afford a new one. To make up for it I used a piece of cardboard with a pinhole through it, which produced some interesting results but exposed my sensor to the elements and I knew if I kept it up I’d be without a body as well as a lens.
So I stopped taking pictures. For a long time. Finally for my birthday my parents stepped in. They’ve always been there to support me, for which I am eternally grateful. I replaced my broken lens and, like any kid with a new toy, went straight out to play with it. Only something was wrong. I realized as I walked around that I didn’t see the city as I once did. When I first moved here I was heavily into urban exploration and having exhausted most of the interesting sites in Boston I was excited to find new places in New York to explore. But my interest in that passed once I broke my lens and had stopped taking photos. I remember when I got to New York everything caught my eye. The one thing I love most about this city is how the light strikes it. I love walking down an avenue when the sun is low; the streets shine like gold and all the people and cars lose all detail and become dark masses scurrying about. I also loved how the buildings looked. Unlike Boston which is so small that almost every building stands out, there were so many buildings in New York that they all melted together. This texture, along with the various shadows that were inevitable, created a world that I felt few people saw in their daily rush. But after rushing for so long, not stopping to see the city in this way, I seemed to had lost my sight of it. So for months now I’ve been wandering around, taking pictures but doing nothing with them as I never saw anything in them (I think I still have a memory card that I haven’t uploaded to my computer from Thanksgiving.)
This all changed in December when I found out this friend who I hadn’t talked to in over a year was not only a photographer (and good one at that) but had also had some urbex experience. I bemoaned the fact that I hadn’t been exploring in well over a year and she immediately pulled me out of my slump and suggested we go find something. That something is in the post below, the abandoned subway station in the Bronx.
Ever since I’ve felt that I’ve gotten my eyes back. Since then I’ve been out to a few places I’ve always wanted to go. Since it’s winter there usually aren’t any people around, which I like because I like images that show cities devoid of people (post-apocalyptic.) The tipping point came when I got an image on Gothamist yesterday, a website I frequent and a place for New York photographers to show off their stuff. I’ve had images on their before but this time I really feel vindicated. I feel like I’ve gotten my sight back and other people are acknowledging it.
So finally I have a reason to update this site. I’m back baby.
