Archive for the ‘Hudson River’ Category
Omphalos
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The first day of my recent visit ‘back to the old neighborhood,’ as detailed in posts last week, ended with a Metro North trip up to NYS’s community of Cold Spring, right across the Hudson River from Storm King Mountain and West Point. I stayed the night with one of my oldest friends, and after quaffing a heavy breakfast in the town, your humble narrator was once again on the move.
The evening before, I grew so tired that I was becoming incoherent, it was a bit like being drunk. When I was shown the bedding upon which I’d be sleeping, an immediate loss of consciousness occurred. I’d been on the go for something like twenty straight hours at that point.
Pictured above is a Metro North unit moving away from the city.
What? I’ve always passed the time when commuting by shooting trains.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After a few minutes, the Manhattan bound train arrived, right on schedule. It would take a little over an hour to get into town. In accordance with my advance plans, the underclothing worn the day before was thrown in the garbage (I packed a series of ‘end of life’ garments to wear which would have shortly ended up being used as cleaning rags back home). Home base would be established this evening, for the next couple of days at least, in Queens’ Middle Village. There I’d be able to dismantle my pack a bit and leave some stuff behind, but at this moment I still needed to carry everything everywhere. Bah!
I settled into a seat on the water side of the train. A camera gizmo was affixed to one of the lenses, a silicone ‘baffle’ shroud which promised to block window reflections. It actually worked as described, but was a fairly clumsy thing to handle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
MTA has a repair and maintenance facility along the tracks up here, which our train hurtled through. I was using my usual camera formula for this sort of circumstance – setting the thing to aperture and ISO sensitivities which are normally used in low light situations, while setting the shutter speed to an insanely quick exposure speed in the realm of 1/6400th or 1/8000th of a second in order to ‘freeze’ the image.
In between shooting, I roamed around inside my camera bag, ensuring that everything has survived the trip and yesterday’s efforts. Double checking things is almost an ADD issue for me, but it insures that I don’t lose track of or damage important – or expensive – things.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After passing by the Tappan Zee Bridge on the Hudson, the whole ‘shoot out the windows’ setup was disassembled, and a wide angle 16mm lens was affixed for the arrival at Grand Central Terminal.
The next stop after getting to Manhattan would be the 7 train, and then I was heading out to Hunters Point in LIC, to meet up with a couple of the new employees at Newtown Creek Alliance who were hired after I debarked NYC for Pittsburgh. They had a couple of new things to show me, and they also had never experienced the ‘Mitch Waxman at Newtown Creek thing.’
My beloved creek…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I always experience a rush when entering the main chamber at Grand Central. Back in art school, during the 1980’s, I had a drawing class proctored by a guy named John Ruggiero which met here. Back then, Grand Central was a de facto homeless shelter, and the mission for the class was more or less visual journalism. Approach somebody, find out a little bit, ask if you can draw them. About half of the time, they’d say yes in exchange for a bagel and coffee. Almost 40 years later, and where am I and what am I doing most of the time – but with a camera instead of a drawing pad? Hmm.
Man, I just kept on getting reminded of my past on this trip. Everywhere I went… stories.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I decided to get to the 7 via the long way, by walking outside the building and circling towards the station via 42nd street. When people in Pittsburgh ask me what NYC is like, I usually say ‘it smells like college.’
What I mean is that the ubiquitous skunk of Marijuana is absolutely omnipresent in midtown Manhattan since legalization. Wow. Used to be that you had to walk a few blocks east to avoid the cops while partaking.
I’m all for the local and national end of prohibition, incidentally. Prohibition didn’t work out for alcohol, won’t ever work for drugs and we have the entire 20th century to look for proof of that. If there’s demand for anything, sellers will emerge to profit from it. A market arises, and you can’t beat a market. Best bet thereby is legalization, and high tax, just like alcohol and tobacco. I have spoken.
Back tomorrow with more.
“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.
tradewinds sweep
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
November 13th. My pal Meg Black, from Working Harbor Committee plotzed back at the start of the year. She was cremated, and another Pal – Barbara – had held onto her ashes until an appropriate moment arrived to dispose of them. Meg’s family, on the 13th, was onboard the John J Harvey Fireboat along with us – the Working Harbor Committee. Captain Huntley Gil navigated the 1931 Fireboat down the Hudson River from its home at Pier 66 to the Statue of Liberty.
This is the last time for me, riding on board the Harvey. It was Meg’s last time, too.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Meg Black is one of the most enigmatic people I’ve ever met. Her last name describes her sense of humor, and she was one of the prime components of the Working Harbor Committee. Tireless is how she’d want me to describe her, but Meg often groaned and creeped under the burdens of her central role in the organization. She always delivered.
Another one of my little mottos is “do what you say, say what you do.” That’s could describe her, my contentious friend Meg. In the picture above, that’s a member of her family – a niece, I believe – letting her loose on New York Harbor.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is where the ashes were scattered.
Goodbye, old friend.
“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.
doglike things
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After a terrifying visit to a cautionary tale known as Hudson Yards, a quick ride on the 7 train carried me back to the gently rolling hills of Western Queens where a transfer at the Queensboro Plaza subway stop was actuated and I was soon on an N train heading towards almond eyed Astoria. This was from the end of my journeys on Sunday – August 21st – which were meant to include riding on a Fireboat, but which ended up in a staggered scuttle about the abominable Hudson Yards.
One was hoping to wander through a street festival or something lively in the way home through Astoria – a Detestation of some Abyssal Power, or a Celebration of a Lord or Lady of Light – but it was just another Sunday in the ancient village.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Notice was taken of this woman feeding a group of birds. The birds seemed to be arranging themselves into a geometric pattern, but logic dictates that it was just the pattern of the woman’s arcing throws of seed or bread that they were following. Still, one wonders, and more than wonders…
Once I caught a photo of a group of birds sitting upon a series of Astoria power lines, in a pattern which reminded me of musical notation. I sent it to a musician friend of mine for analysis. He refused to discuss the matter after viewing the image, instructing that I should never mention it again and advising that I destroy the image.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On the 24th of August, a day trip to visit a friend in the pretty town of Hudson, New York was undertaken. It was a long drive and my photographic curiosities were stifled due to social obligation.
There used to be a whaling fleet who’s home base was here in Hudson. The financial benefits of this industrial activity explains how they could afford the expenses of building out the grandiose architecture from the 1840’s – 1880’s era which is still extant in the town, as said fleet often did business with Ambrose Kingsland in Greenpoint. The Newtown Creek tributary “Whale Creek” is so named because of Kingsland’s whale oil refinery, and the corollary industries of rope manufacture, blacksmithing, shipwrighting, and miscellaneous ship supply hugged the shores of Whale Creek in Greenpoint.
Staten Island artist John Noble actually painted Whale Creek during this era – here’s a link to the Noble Museum at Snug Harbor.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hudson is a very attractive town, and I wish that I had more time to explore. I also really wanted to get a shot of the old docks where the Newtown Creek bound whaling ships would launch from, but as mentioned above – this was a social visit and not a photo mission.
The shot above is from a park along the Hudson River that obviously used to be part of a barge to rail setup.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Saturday the 27th of August, and this shot was from something like 8 in the morning, captured while sitting in the passenger seat of a late model Mercedes on the George Washington Bridge.
The Mercedes belongs to my pal Max, and we were on the road heading west for a week long “away game.” I left the pinstripes at home, put on my gray uniform, and configured the camera to a very odd group of settings.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The ISO was set into the range I normally use for night time low light conditions, the aperture was set to either f8 or f11 depending on time of day and ambient light, and the shutter to 1/8000th of a second.
When you’re traveling in a late model Mercedes at about 70 miles per hour, westwards through Pennsylvania, you need to take steps to freeze the action for the camera.
More next week.
“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.
narrower alleys
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One last shot of the Power Plant in Yonkers, specifically its Hudson River moat, was gathered on the way back to My Pal Val’s Valmobile. She offered to drop me off somewhere convenient on her way back to Nassau County on Long Island, so I greedily lept at the idea of catching a ride at least part of the way back home.
She had opted for the Whitestone Bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I cracked this one out through her windshield while we were on a highway, which is a lot easier said than done. I think it’s the Whitestone, but it could also be the Throgg’s Neck. I’m sure some nagging presence on one of my social media accounts will take the opportunity to hijack this post and use it to express how much more knowledgable they are than I about the bridges of the East River.
Soon, we touched down in Queens, and I was dropped off nearby the Whitestone Expressway’s exit and entrance ramps in Flushing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Well… don’t mind if I do, Flushing Bay.
I had a bit of a walk ahead of me to get to the 7 train. I could have easily made it to Main Street and the station there, but it was a pretty nice day and I wasn’t quite done with shooting yet so I scuttled off towards Citifield instead.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There are multiple generations of politicians in Queens who should burn in hell for what they’ve done to or allowed to be done to our ancestral waterways.
Sigh… nothing matters, nobody cares, nothing matters, nobody cares, nothing matters, nobody cares.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After the one above, I packed up the tripod kit and reverted back over to handheld shooting mode. I decided to walk over to the Citifield stop in order to catch the 7 line, which I’d take to Jackson Heights and transfer to one of the two underground lines that stop near HQ.
My “escape New Yorkmobile” is on order, and I’m expecting the dealership to be calling any day to let me know it’s time to come in and sign the loan agreement which will allow me to leave this dystopian shithole behind me at last. Saying that, I’m enjoying all the mass transit I can before becoming part of the problem.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I keep on telling myself that there’s plenty of super polluted waterways where I’m going. The good news is that I’ll be able to drive to them.
Tomorrow – something different.
“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.
fourth harangue
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A final post from the excursion I was invited to join in on to the NY Central Railroad’s abandoned Glenwood Power Plant in Yonkers.
These shots are from the boiler building, where coal fired furnaces were stoked, which heated the boilers that steam powered the generators in the building next door, which then electrified the NYC RR Hudson Line tracks leading south into Grand Central.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned in earlier posts, this 1907 plant was abandoned in 1971 by its new owner – MTA – after they took over the commuter and rail service on the Hudson Line from the bankrupt NY Central (which had merged with its longtime rival Pennsylvania Railroad into the unwieldy PennCentral RR), due to an MTA preference to buy the electricity from suppliers like Consolidated Edison rather than generate it themselves.
The plant went feral. It’s rumored to be one of the sites where the long rumored “Son of Sam cult” would meet up.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The fellow who was guiding us was the engineer responsible for shoring up and making these structures habitable again. Due to it being exposed to the elements for five decades, there’s a lot of rot he and his crews have to deal with – rusty and water damaged structural steel, shifting foundations, you name it.
I kept on shooting while he was talking about the immensity of the task.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s in places like this that you’re reminded that giants used to stride the earth in New York City and it’s surroundings.
The day trip was beginning to wind down, and as the group began to filter towards the exits, I kept on shooting.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Whenever I have limited or one time access to a location, this is my practice. Keep the camera busy until the very last moment.
Finally, that moment came.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We gathered outside, and the rest of the group became interested in some pile of rusty steel, so I kept on keeping on.
Something somewhat different tomorrow – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“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 