slantplanks rising
Happy Place Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Like every other piece of wind blown trash in NYC, a humble narrator often finds himself turning up uninvited in Industrial Maspeth, which is my happy place. You need to be specific describing the sections of ancient Maspeth, as residential Maspeth is actually quite lovely and a fairly desirable place to live – especially if you’ve got kids. Industrial Maspeth, on the other hand, is a blasted heath where the fires of the industrial revolution(s) burned as hot as those in hell. You’ve got pollution of every kind everywhere you look hereabouts – the underground, air, soil, and Industrial Maspeth’s coastlines are defined by the canalized bulkheads of the fabulous Newtown Creek and its tributaries. Newtown Creek is, of course, a Federal Superfund site and is probably the most contaminated waterbody in North America.
Happy place, yo.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recent endeavor found one wandering about aimlessly, waiting for sunset to arrive so I could set up my tripod and capture a few landscape style shots. I try not to waste time while in the field, and when opportunity to capture “study” shots with bright primary colors presents itself I take it.
I tell ya, the working stiffs have no idea how much I appreciate them randomly tossing together safety barriers like the one pictured above.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Our Lady of Perpetual Puddles is the patron saint hereabouts. Heavy trucking really does a job on asphalt and the underlying infrastructure here in the Happy Place. This particular fire hydrant and the water it oozes into the street will play kind of big role in a post you’re going to see later on in the week, but for today’s purpose I just love the pastel colors it was reflecting from the vaulted sky.
I do hope you’ve subscribed to Newtown Pentacle if you’re new to the site. Generally speaking, I update with new material 5 times a week. I promise you won’t receive advertisements for weird stuff that have nothing to do with me, or at least any ads I’m inserting are for my photo books and or tours of the Newtown Creek which I’m the creator of. You can have the posts delivered to an email address you fill in above, for free, or you can follow me on Twitter – @newtownpentacle – to receive updates on that platform.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, October 12th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
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“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
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