Archive for November 2024
Archives #030
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Nothing like shooting a bridge, I always say. They hold stock still, don’t blink or sneeze, and never break the pose to worry if their ‘hair is alright.’ Saying that, it’s all about time of day and lighting when bridge photos are sought. The one above was captured while onboard a Working Harbor Committee tour of Newark Bay.
This 2010 post offered a ‘Happy Birthday’ greeting to the original configuration of the Bayonne Bridge spanning the Kill Van Kull.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The ‘big kahunas’ of New York Harbor are all found within a few miles of each other, with Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges at the center of the garland. I never missed taking a picture of the Brooklyn Bridge every time I happened to be passing it by. On a boat before sunrise, in Brooklyn on foot, or on Manhattan by foot. Its presence in a shot is a ‘place maker,’ just like having the Empire State Building somewhere in a shot, and iconically screams ‘this is New York City.’
In 2016, I spent a bit of time under the Brooklyn Bridge in Lower Manhattan and came across the oldest tavern in NYC, which was destroyed by Sandy and was still closed 4 years later.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Minor bridges are also kind of a thing for me, and my beloved creek had no shortages in that department for the wandering photographer to record.
On November 15th in 2019, I published this post – called ‘correlated causeways’ – as a catch all post to simply describe all the bridges of Newtown Creek in a single post.
Back next week.
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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.
Archives #029
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A frequently walked pathway to Newtown Creek from Astoria was one that would see a humble narrator march southwards along 43rd street in Sunnyside, and then hang a right on Greenpoint Avenue towards Blissville and Brooklyn. Newtown Creek Alliance’s HQ is just across the water in Greenpoint, so as you’d imagine – there was a lot of back and forth along this route over the years.
In 2014, a humble narrator had grown annoyed at thousands of illegally placed advertisements, ones that suddenly appeared on every lamp post in Western Queens – as discussed in this November 14th post.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek is where I spent a lot of time over the last dozen or so years I lived in NYC. To start – it was the section of the creek closest to my house, and a twenty minute walk would deliver me to a subway station if I decided to punk out and find a ride home. Deserted, generally. No one on the streets but me.
The photos in the post ‘pressure laminated’ were gathered while crawling around the bulkheads of Newtown Creek’s Dutch Kills tributary, but the text talks about pandemics. Oddly, I was only about three to four miles off in my prediction of Covid’s global epicenter being in Astoria, rather than in Elmhurst where it ended up being.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The age of oil started in western Pennsylvania in a place called Oil City, which is right next door to PA’s Titusville. A day trip in 2023 saw me visiting both municipalities, and photographing some of the sights.
In 2023, this post about Pennsylvania’s Titusville was published.
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“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.
Archives #028
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Your humble narrator will admit to feeling nostalgic about my beloved creek, back at the undefended border of Brooklyn and Queens. I miss a lot of things about New York, it should be mentioned. Notably it’s the style of life which was normative due to my long habitation of NYC, but my longings always omit the omnipresent piles of blood, scabs, and hair. It also shies away from reminiscences of the smears of dog excrement, and those vomit puddles adorning the curbs which also float the litter. I also haven’t seen anyone ‘bleeding out’ in close to two years now. Imagine that?
This November 13th post in 2018 visited Maspeth Creek in the middle of the night. I was focused in tightly on night shooting at this point, and the shot above was captured while taking quite a risk.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back in Astoria, our crib had a terraced and covered outdoor space which allowed me to be outside a lot, and observe the milieu from about twenty feet over the sidewalk. There was a catering hall across the street which hosted all sorts of events.
One night, there was some kind of teen dance thing going on there, and most of the kids in attendance were East Asian. My guess is that they were Korean, but that’s a guess. The doors of the catering hall suddenly blew open, and all the kids spilled into the street. They started fighting. They were popping the rear view mirrors off of parked cars to throw at each other, and one of them yanked the two wooden poles supporting a newly planted tree out of the soil. The kid wielded them like Bo sticks, fighting off two other kids. Kung fu style kicks were thrown and a general Donnybrook was under way. That’s until a Toyota Land Cruiser full of their Moms arrived. The fight ended immediately and the kids adopted a particular pose of submission in response to this recently arrived ‘greater authority.’ This was just one of literally dozens of such occurrences which would manifest under my very nose.
These days, I’m psyched if I see a deer in my yard.
In 2019, November 13th came along when I was recovering from a smashed and broken toe, and archives shots were offered from the library. In this case it was a series of experimental macro shots of fruits.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned previously, your humble narrator seems to be on the mend. Physical Therapy started shortly after the cast holding my broken ankle together was removed, and I’m following the program laid out – including the ‘at home’ exercises and stretches which I’ve been assigned. I’m getting my strength back, and have gradually been reassuming my daily round of mundane tasks. Hey – two weeks ago, the victory moment was consistently being able to pee while standing up, so…
Finally, shots from a visit to LIC’s Montauk Cutoff one afternoon were published on 2020’s November 13th, in the post ‘organic metabolism.’
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“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.
Archives #027
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s been a real ‘trip down memory lane,’ the act of pulling these posts out of backup. I’m trying to be somewhat random in what gets linked to, but ultimately it’s calendrical. Some years, this date fell on a weekend, or I was taking a break and doing my ‘single photo post’ dealie. Regardless, trying to mix it up and find some distance between them.
These archive posts are reaching into Newtown Pentacle’s backups, and are pulling posts that went public on this date, in their respective years, going back to 2009. This practice will continue until I’m back on both feet full time, and new photos and stories can be gathered. For anyone who hasn’t heard the news, I broke my left ankle at the end of September.
Apparently, I took one of the last photos of the Old Orchard Shoal Lighthouse on the Great Kills, before it was scoured away by Hurricane Sandy. Check it out in this post from November the 12th in 2012.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m really starting to feel better at this point. The Physical Therapy chapter in the broken ankle story has started. The effects of the series of exercises and stretches, which I do at home as well as in the medical office, have ameliorated a great deal of the swelling and pain.
In 2015, I was just starting to focus in on mastering night time shooting so I headed over to Newtown Creek in the dark to do some workshopping.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hoping that I might figure out a spot where I can sort of drive up to and just start taking photos, but that’s kind of putting the cart before the horse. Two weeks ago I was still writhing in agony, after all. One step at a time, albeit a heavily limping step.
The shot above is one of my top three most pirated images. You can order shower curtains with it from a company in China that has never sent me a penny for usage. It’s virtually impossible to stop this sort of thing so I don’t bother. Check out this Chrysler Building oriented post from 2019.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“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.
Archives #026
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m able to ‘sort of’ walk again as this one publishes, albeit with a ‘walking boot’ sort of brace. Since the cast for my broken ankle came off a couple of weeks ago, every day has seen me doing something that would’ve been impossible just a 48 hours earlier. Still not capable of ‘normal’ activity, but…
These archive posts are reaching into Newtown Pentacle’s backups, and are pulling posts that went public on this date, in their respective years, going back to 2009. This practice will continue until I’m back on both feet full time, and new photos and stories can be gathered. For anyone who hasn’t heard the news, I broke my left ankle at the end of September.
This 2015 posting was titled ‘duplicate and exceed’ and it described a night time walk around the happy place of industrial Maspeth. This is right around when the low light shooting bug got installed in my head.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
What with the agony from the ankle and all, grooming has not been high on the list of ‘have-to’s,’ but that’s also something I can do finally again so I cut my hair and trimmed the beard just yesterday. It’s nice to recognize the guy in the bathroom mirror again, I tell’s ya. I was looking wild, with two months worth of gray wool sticking out of my head.
On November 11 in 2019, a humble narrator was enduring a different injury than the one I’m currently enjoying, as discussed in ‘inherent deficiency.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As a note, it’s Veteran’s Day and I’m going to be missing all of the PA parades this year. Looking forward to waving the camera around again. This walking boot produces a fairly severe limp, due to its static bracing of the ankle and calf, so wherever I end up taking the camera to it’s going to a ‘stand or sit around’ rather than ‘photowalk’ sort of situation.
Finally, this post from 2020 dubbed ‘darkly probable,’ discusses walking a tripod/camera setup around Queens Plaza at night.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“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.
The Newtown Pentacle 