Author Archive
chilly depths
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of my little hobbies involves the recording of manhole covers, the large iron discs which act as a removable hatch for access tunnels to the stygian world of infrastructure that underlies the streets of New York City. Often, the cover will betray the age of the street, indicate the company or municipal organ that installed it, and provide some subtext to the relict building stock adjoins them.
This post isn’t about manholes, however, it’s about a beautiful bit of street art recently observed in the Dutch Kills neighborhood nearby the legend choked Queens Plaza.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This bit of graffiti surpasses the normal tags and scrawled affirmations common to the so called art form, due to its masterful draftsmanship and painterly quality. My own background in commercial illustration makes me a bit of snob when it comes to drawing, and this more than passes my rigid and stoic standards.
Owing allegiance more to Arisman than to Bode, this is no “cheech wizard smoking a doobie”.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Check out the wonderful contour line drawing in the elephant, and the gorgeous use of highlight and tone in the face. Nice, nice work. Whoever the artist(s) is, they have a wonderful touch. This sort of thing is normally the province of Ms. Heather at NY-Shitty, as Newtown Pentacle seldom focuses on street art, and perhaps she might be able to identify the artist.
Normally, presentation of graffitis is only engendered when it is enigmatic or curious, suggests the hidden occult, or is a blatant example of time and opportunity available at a transportation center.
shadowy corners
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recently, your humble narrator had occasion to visit the Shining City of Manhattan, and having a few free minutes between appointments- I decided to visit the High Line park. Now, the last time I was up here was on some shadowy and half remembered date in the early 1990’s, a time when the High Line was referred to as “the world’s longest Homeless camp”.
Back then, you literally had to climb up there.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The views from the High Line are impressive, however the modern architecture and design of the park reveals its planners adherence to hideous and short sighted modernism. Frankly, this thing ain’t sustainable, and my prediction is that within 20 years this place will be a dusty footnote and emblematic of the failings of the current Manhattan establishment and their allegiance to the whims and desires of the Real Estate Industrial Complex.
Maybe I’m wrong, but as a native New Yorker, which most of the people running the City these days are not, so mark this as one of my little prophecies.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The thing that struck me, as we neared the Meat Market side of the High Line, was the clear and uninterrupted view of both the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island from its decking. The streets below are familiar to me, and were considered “stomping grounds” for a younger and angrier narrator back in the late 1980’s and 1990’s. These streets were industrial then, mobster controlled and policed, a warren of abattoirs and fishmongers which only superficially resembles the modern neighborhood of high priced shops and so called “mall stores”.
A few saloons and sex clubs were the only “draw” back then.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The shot above is included only because it reminds me of the soporific architect renderings which accompany the announcement of projects such as the High Line. Vague, it suggests a clean and sterile form of street life acceptable to the tastes of tourists and virgins. Controlled, policed, and leashed- it flies in the face of the brash and dangerous New York City of olden times.
Artists offer non confrontational images, whilst displaying vendor license and tax identification, and demure European tourists wander along a former industrial hinterland that was considered distasteful because of the coppery smell of animal blood which once ran freely along the gutters.
Project Firebox 25
– photo by Mitch Waxman
24th Street and 42nd Road in Long Island City, in addition to being a geographic palindrome, hosts this centuried sentinel of the realm. It’s crown is long lost, and core functionality is suspect, yet its columnar presence still affirms the presence of redoubtable guardianship and an omnipresent vigilance. It has been too long since the watchtowers of Long Island City have graced these postings, and so we celebrate a seasonal return to Project Firebox.
forgotten hands
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On another one of the long marches across the concrete desolations of Western Queens, it occurred to me that I should pay more attention to the steel fingers of the Great Machine than has been formerly applied. This is a problematic notion, of course, as we live in the age of terror- and taking pictures of transportation infrastructure is largely frowned upon by governmental institutions such as the NYPD for understandable and prosaic reasons.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Part of my outlandish sense of entitlement, imagined largesse, and pompous self importance demands that I do not allow such entities to inhibit my activities.
I’m happy to be questioned by the gendarme whenever they might approach me with queries as to identity and purpose. Law demands that a citizen must carry some form of identification, otherwise the police may detain you with the intention of assessing your identity (for a limited period of time), which is something I always comply with. No such law allows law enforcement to demand that you show them what you’re shooting (they need a warrant for this kind of search), explain why you’re shooting it (that’s what you tell a judge), or to delete images from your camera- or so I am told by those versed in the finer points of law.
If you are in a place which is “in public”, you can feel free to do whatever you want with your camera, within certain limitations (defined around the commercial use of likenesses and editorial implications implied thereof). If on private property, however, the owner or its representatives can ask you to vacate the locale and you must comply with their wishes or be charged with trespassing (however these private entities are similarly restricted in not forcing you to display, delete, or otherwise explain yourself to them).
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Of course, this is an ideal presentation of encounters between photographers and those who wish that the only cameras which existed were those monitoring the citizenry for criminal transgression and evidentiary collection.
Often, one will experience an encounter with a rookie cop, unusually aggressive private security guard, or criminal who does not hold to this liberal interpretation of constitutionally guaranteed free speech. Refer to the recent controversies surrounding the Occupy Wall Street protests, and the widely rebuffed handling of mainstream press photographers by the NYPD for an example of how things can go wildly wrong in the real world.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Once, whilst capturing an image of the charming St. Irene’s Church here in Astoria, an angry chorus of Greek women took it upon themselves to brand me a terrorist and chased me for several blocks- all the while hurling Hellenic invective. Many of them curled their hands into balls and stuck their thumbs out between middle and ring fingers, and one of them called me “A Bin Laden”.
That’s when I turned around and confronted the group asking “Wouldn’t a Terrorist have a car?”.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Regardless of risk and the malign attentions of both private and public security, your humble narrator is nevertheless highly motivated to capture and record the magnificent transportation infrastructure which forms the fingers of the Great Machine. I’m sure that they won’t let me take the DSLR into central booking with me, but as I’ve never been accused of anything but driving too fast on the Taconic Parkway and Pennsylvania Turnpike by law enforcement, it sure will be interesting standing in front of a judge.
And by the way, Happy Festivus.
