Archive for the ‘Kill Van Kull’ Category
extinguishing all
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
June 8th, and I was attending a performance of something… avant gardé… I guess. I’m not really sure how to describe a “soundscape” performance, but there I was at the sewer plant in Greenpoint.
Before things got started, I walked over to Newtown Creek to pop out a sunset shot because “why not”?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s Che Chen in the yellow shirt, who was the soundscape artist. His team had microphones and speakers set up, and the event drew quite a crowd. Even Our Lady of the Pentacle was there. It went right over my head, but the crowd was digging the hell out of this.
We actually snuck away early and walked over to a bar on Greenpoint’s Manhattan Avenue to grab a drink, and get dinner.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
June 9th saw me in the company of My Pal Val. Several years ago, I was invited by the NYC Parks Dept. to be part of a group of photographers who would get to spend some time at Fresh Kills. At the time, none of the park had opened to the public yet. I’ve been subsequently asked to come back but was never able to make my schedule work. Given that I’m planning on departing the City at the end of the year… when the invite arrived, I said yes, and managed to get Val on the guest list too.
Val picked me up in Astoria, and we headed off to… Staten Island.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We actually got there far earlier than we needed to, with the intention of finding some “catch as catch can” shooting opportunities along the way. …Staten Island… is fairly photogenic at its edges. Upland (with a few very notable exceptions), it’s pretty much suburban sprawl – highways, housing developments, and shopping malls – but …Staten Island… has a very interesting waterfront.
Particularly so on its eastern (Verrazano/Narrows), western (Arthur Kill), and northern (Kill Van Kull) coasts. The south coast of …Staten Island… is basically a salt marsh and then a beach.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking south along the narrows towards the bridge, those ships belong to the Sandy Hooks Pilots. They escort large vessels into New York Harbor. The horizon buildings behind the ships are in Brooklyn, and found along the Belt Parkway.
We picked our way along the waterfront, heading towards Skelson’s Office.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a spot at the end of Bard Avenue which my dearly departed pal John Skelson used to shoot tugboats passing by on the Kill Van Kull from. Several times we called him out, while passing by on a Hidden Harbor tour with the Working Harbor Committee, and the spot became known as “Skelson’s Office” for all the time that he spent here.
Time began to grow short, and My Pal Val and I decided that it would wise to grab a meal. We shortly found a diner, where I had a fine cheeseburger, and then we continued on our journey to the edge of the known world – Fresh Kills.
“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.
vestiges of
How many times a week can you say it’s Monday, huh?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described last week, my pal Val drove her Valmobile – with myself and a libertarian named Scott within it – out to a photogenic spot on the Kill Van Kull waterway which forms a busy martime shipping channel as well as the border betwixt… Staten Island… and Bayonne, New Jersey. After visiting this spot – known to my circle as “Skelson’s Office,” it was decided to make like a chicken and cross to the other side. Our path carried the Valmobile over the newly reconfigured Bayonne Bridge.
By reconfigured, I mean that the Port Authority has just finished spending multiple millions of bucks to raise the roadway from its original height in pursuit of allowing ever larger cargo ships access to the Port Elizabeth Newark complex in Newark Bay.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In Bayonne, which is largely the unknown country for a humble narrator, we floundered around a bit but managed to find a couple of opportune spots that largely looked westwards towards the port facilities. We were becoming increasingly apprehensive about weather, which as you see from the shot above, was forming up an afternoon thunderhead of the type you expect to see in late August around these parts.
If I was a superhero, my nom de plume would be “Captain Vocabulary.” On that note, the beams of light at the left side of the shot are referred to as “crepuscular rays.” Scott the Libertarian didn’t care, which is a big part of that particular political philosophy – not caring – and he was busy trying to figure out a spot where we could buy lunch in the surrounding neighborhood on his phone while Val and I waved our cameras about.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the control tower at Newark Airport just left of center, which kind of suggests where this shot was gathered. The blue tug is part of the DonJon outfit, and it was wrestling a seemingly empty group of barges into place.
More tomorrow at this – you Newtown Pentacle.
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, August 24th. 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.
“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.
less annoying
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned yesterday, a recent day trip with a couple of friends found the camera being waved about at “Skelson’s Office,” a particularly photogenic spot on Staten Island’s Kill Van Kull waterfront frequented by a dearly departed photographer pal of mine. The bridge in the background is the Bayonne Bridge, which acts as a gateway to the Port Elizabeth Newark shipping complex. A significant percentile of the economy of the entire United States is focused through this tidal strait, I would offer.
Pictured is the Highland Eagle, an offshore supply vessel flagged in the UK.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Bayonne coastline of Kill Van Kull is all about petroleum and the various refined products derived from it.
Pictured is the Ernest Campbell, a 1969 vintage Tugboat, wrestling a fuel barge away from its dock and into the currents of Kill Van Kull. The structure behind it hosts the various hoses which the upland tank farm uses to move the product around. A bit of maritime trivia – the various hoses and fuel barges have different connectors on them to keep one product from mixing with another. The kerosene pipe doesn’t connect to the gasoline or #2 fuel oil gasket, which keeps volatile mistakes at a minimum.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Moran Towing’s Turecamo Girls Tug was likely returning to their base at Kill Van Kull when this shot was captured. Moran Towing has the iconic NYC tugs, with the red wheelhouse and big letter “M” on them. Moran names their boats after family members, generally, but in this case the 1965 tug was acquired after a merger with another towing corporation (Turecamo Towing) back in 1998.
Back Monday with more from the waterfront.
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, August 17th. 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.
“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.
likewise inaccessible
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Earlier this week, one met up with his pal Val and we jumped into her shiny Valmobile with the singular intention of shooting ships. Accordingly, Val oriented the Valmobile in the direction of… Staten Island. After all these months of quarantine/pandemic walks around LIC and Newtown Creek, a humble narrator was positively squeaking with excitement as we heroically mounted the Verazzano Bridge and headed towards the Kill Van Kull waterway.
Adventure, excitement… a Jedi craves not these things, but I ain’t no Jedi.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Our first stop was at “Skelson’s Office,” where my old and dearly departed pal John Skelson used to spend his time. This is a spot along the old and abandoned Vanderbilt Staten Island Railroad tracks which follow Kill Van Kull. KVK is often mentioned here during normal times, but for anyone not clued in – it’s a tidal strait that connects the lower harbor of New York with Newark Bay and another strait called Arthur Kill.
Kill Van Kull is the preferred approach route to the New York Container Terminal on Staten Island and the Global Marine/Port Elizabeth Newark complex in Bayonne, New Jersey for maritime shipping. For enthusiasts like my pal Val and myself, it’s “tugboat alley.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The show started as soon as we arrived at Skelson’s Office.
Our efforts later in the day found us over in Bayonne, and along the Hackensack and Passaic rivers. One thing that emerged during that part of the day was a sincere desire to find out more about the industrial sections of this section of New Jersey. I mentioned several times that I wished we were in a boat on the water, and that I was also anxious to find an analogue of Newtown Creek Alliance for this area to introduce me to the place.
A third person was in the Valmobile with us, my friend Scott, but he’s a Libertarian so we didn’t pay attention to anything he had to say. More tomorrow.
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, August 17th. 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.
“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.
modern delving
I was on a boat yesterday!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Waterfront Alliance hosts an annual conference for shoreline focused people and whereas I couldn’t afford a ticket, my friend who works on the other side of the Newtown Creek Superfund table at ExxonMobil (who purchase a large parcel of tickets for this event) offered to include me on his guest list, so a humble narrator found himself in Manhattan and then on the water yesterday. That’s called disclosure, btw.
The affair is fairly swank, and there is a nice lunch served. For the morning session (there are multiple panels discussing this and that, and this year’s theme revolved around climate change and rising sea levels) the boat is at dock. Shortly after lunch, the boat leaves the dock and heads off into NY Harbor. This year, Kill Van Kull was the destination, which is a waterway that long time readers will remind you that a humble narrator is quite familiar with. Tugboat alley, I call it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The boat, which was the Hornblower Infinity if you’re curious, went all the way back to the junction of Kill Van Kull, Arthur Kill, and Newark Bay nearby Shooters Island on Staten Island’s northern shore.
In the shot above, those transfer cranes on the horizon are the ones at the NY Container Terminal, which is where the whole “containerization” concept now universally adopted for international trade was first unveiled.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On our way back to the pier in Manhattan where we started, a shift change must have happened at McAllister towing, as three of their tugs had just got underway and were leaving their Staten Island dock in formation.
In the distance is the Port Authority’s Bayonne Bridge.
“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 