Archive for August 7th, 2025
Means and Ways
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There were a few ‘Bernie Holes’ cut into the fencing of the 28th street Bridge, connecting ‘Polish Hill’ with ‘The Strip.’ The lines of sight offerred nice views of a set of empty rail tracks and one of Pittsburgh’s ‘Bus Ways.’
Me? I was getting pretty f’shvitzed. High 80’s straying into the low 90’s and a dew point humidity level which the local CBS television station’s meteorological staff had described as ridiculous. I had also just passed out of an elevated area with abundant tree cover, and into an ‘urban heat island.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Newtown Creek was one of the places where this urban heat island phenomenon was first scientifically described, and it was once called the ‘Maspeth Heat Island Effect.’ Suffice to say, the collected heat radiating up and out of the concrete and asphalt grew staggering at this point.
I was ready for the weather. I even had an umbrella, just in case, although the forecast didn’t call for rain. This was the sort of weather, though, where a sudden ‘piss down’ storm wouldn’t seem out of place.
Better to be prepared. I was wearing a silly fishing hat with a wide brim that I bought at Costco for $7. Machine washable hats for the win, amirite?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One last shot of the 28th street Bridge, which is a location that I will definitely be putting on my watch list for rail shots. There’s kind of a skyline/rail shot there, but it’s going to take a few iterations to ‘get it.’ It’s a complicated photo, actually, with horizontal layers of light valuation. Also, the obvious composition is basically a ‘T’ shape, which isn’t a great one.
Something to do, I guess. Whittle away at the lonely hours. All that.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After crossing busy Liberty Avenue, one negotiated his way northwards in the direction of the Allegheny River, a left was hung on Spring Way. As stated in prior posts, in Pittsburgh, it seems that if a street has the word ‘way’ at its end, it’s an alley. Still considered a navigable public street, but an alley nevertheless. Currently, I’m obsessed.
A few of these ‘ways’ offer the only true profusion of graffiti that I see in my daily round. I mean… it’s a city, there’s going to be graffiti. Compared to just Western Queens, however…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Most of what I saw were ‘tags,’ which are essentially signatures that say ‘I was here.’ Saying that, there were a couple of examples which rocked. This abstract and poetic one was pretty darned cool, imho.
Generally speaking, I don’t shoot graffiti/street art for copyright and usage reasons unless somebody asks me to. Don’t want to be perceived as ‘biting’ off somebody for my own aggrandizement.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I love everything about the one above though. Click through and check out the line work on that duck. Great! Looks ‘like a sticker.’ If you click through to the photo, you’ll see an ‘insta’ tag, which I don’t want to put into readable text lest it draw the attentions of the gendarmerie.
Back tomorrow.
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