Archive for the ‘Subway’ Category
Archives #047
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My pals at Newtown Creek Alliance and I used to find ourselves reporting oil slicks and other petroleum related situations to the NYS DEC quite often. The head spill investigator for the agency, who was based in LIC, used to bring us in for an informal lecture and describing how to identify the type of conditions we were observing, and how to report it to the agency to get the quickest investigatory response. This relationship bore much fruit over the years, and still does.
Me? I’ve got at least three ‘reported observations’ which ended up becoming formal ‘remediation efforts’ by NYS officialdom. ‘Eyes on the Creek,’ that was one of the operative rules for us.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Often has a humble narrator opined that the NYC Subway system provides circumstances favorable to the practice of a very technical form of photography. Low light, reflective surfaces, fast moving subject matter… add in a prohibition against tripods, lights, and flash… if you’re struggling to master hand held and low illumination photography skills, go ride the subways and get good at it. You’re commuting somewhere anyway, why not make creative use of otherwise lost time?
2015’s ‘copper eyed’ is all about subways, and photographing them as they enter the station. As a note: This is one of the very few times that I included the shot’s exposure triangle information, incidentally, which was me trying to pull back the curtain a bit to show how I do my thing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I always figured that since half of my time outside the house in NYC was inevitably going to revolve around transit so I might as well make some usage of my wait times on the subway platform. Eventually this catalog of transit included every single public conveyance I could get a camera next to – taxis, buses, citibike… everything public.
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.
“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 #045
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s been a long and strange experience, the broken ankle thing. Far and away the most painful injury suffered during the last twenty thousand and nine hundred twenty five days. As of publication of this post, the broken ankle injury occurred roughly one thousand eight hundred and ninety six hours ago. I spent the first three weeks of that interval in an opioid haze caused by the necessity of pain killers. I was helpless as a baby, as well.
Voting was a challenge due to the ankle, but a Cop helped me get up a set of steps to the polling site for the parking area, and I then cast my lot.
2010’s ‘ceaseless mazes’ talks about an encounter with the New York & Atlantic on the LIRR’s Lower Montauk tracks in Maspeth.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The opioid interval of this experience saw me watching endless hours of police bodycam footage on YouTube for some reason. Since, I’ve been preparing a twenty item long list of ‘things you don’t do when the cops show up, as it really sets them off.’ One of these (#13) is ‘don’t threaten to track the Cops down where they live and kidnap their kids.’ That really doesn’t go down well with the gendarmes, who happily slap a ‘terroristic threat Felony charge’ on the ‘perp’ in return.
It’s Batman rules. You’re not going to win, so just give up when the cops get there. Shut your trap and let them do what they do. The only person you talk to is a lawyer. Batman rules. Batman rules? You’re not going to be able to beat up or resist Batman, that’s the rule. You also can not win a fight with the Cops on the street.
2012’s ‘poor substitute’ detailed a ride on MTA’s holiday nostalgia trains.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m hoping that these archives posts will be a thing of the past pretty soon, but let’s see how sound the ankle actually is, and whether or not I can truly resume my normal activities. Thanks for sticking with Newtown Pentacle through all this, it’s been a balm knowing that y’all are here.
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.
Finally, 2016’s ‘unctuous haggling’ walks around the “Carridor” of Northern Boulevard nearby the border of Astoria and Woodside.
“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 #036
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
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.
One of my notions, when I lived in Queens, was that the abundant grave yards along the Brooklyn Queens border which form the so called ‘Cemetery Belt’ are fantastic places to stretch your legs and get some exercise. Few or no cars, lots of trees and birds… just stick to the roads and paths. If you see a path nearby a fence… definitely walk that way, never know what you might find and it very well might involve extinct North American elephants.
In 2010 on November 25th, ‘Things you learn from being a ghoul’ published, describing a walk through St. Michael’s Cemetery in Astoria that proves the point I always make about paying attention to little things.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As the story goes, I was on my way to some midtown bar for a friend’s birthday when a powerful thunderstorm roared through the City. I had my trusty old Canon G10 with me, which at the time sported a magnetic tripod mount. I clanked the thing down onto a fire hydrant as an ad hoc tripod, as the sky displayed a meteorological phenomenon called Mammatus Clouds. The light was unreal for about a minute. I got lucky.
2015’s ‘or depend’ was actually a Thanksgiving week archive post, so double boomerang on this one. Incidentally, the photo above is my most pirated shot – ever.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Famously, if I’m ‘out and about,’ I’ve got the camera deployed and ready.
Have to take a subway somewhere? Why not get a shot of it? All of those meetings I used to have to attend, in all of the bizarre places they were held, often brought me to visually interesting areas. Sometimes, I’d go ride the trains for ‘shits and giggles’ when I was physically compromised or the weather sucked.
2019’s ‘wholly allied’ saw me riding the 7 train corridor at night.
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 #020
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey, ever wonder what happened to all that Federal disaster money they pumped into the City after Sandy?
After Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the Queens Midtown Tunnel in New York City was inundated with an estimated 12 million gallons of water. The storm surge flooded the tunnel, requiring a significant pumping operation to remove the water before reopening.
In 2012, this November 1st post described what Hank the Elevator Guy and I saw when surveying the Queens side of Newtown Creek after Hurricane Sandy. As a note, I never saw the Blue Crow again.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I was lucky that friends with cars would occasionally give me a lift, but your humble narrator believes in mass transit.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Speaking of mass transit, it’s not like NYC has an exclusive franchise.
This one from 2021 was part of a ‘72 hours in Pittsburgh’ Amtrak trip, and focuses in on one of the funicular railways I love so much.
“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 #018
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the hills that I stand on is that the NYC Subway system makes for an excellent photography workshop. Incredibly difficult conditions below – quite dark and very bright at the same time, with a large and reflective surfaced subject matter that’s moving at a pretty good speed through the frame… kind of difficult. I always had my camera out in NYC, instead of it riding around in a bag.
This 2014 post described the many precautions against ghostly and metaphysical invaders which HQ was being prepared with that year, in advance of Halloween’s ghostly assaults.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s ‘Saw Lady’ Natalia Paruz in the shot above, performing in a tomb at a cemetery in Brooklyn, in the shot above. I ‘dragged the shutter’ to get that ghostly quality while Natalia suffered the ecstasies of her melody.
In 2015, October 30th saw this post published, describing a nighttime visit to Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn with Atlas Obscura.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There is nothing as surreal as being on a subway all by yourself. It ain’t right to occupy this sort of liminal space all alone.
This post from 2017 is a bit of an odd duck, and I seem to recall wanting to write a post in ‘full Lovecraft’ – for old times’ sake – about the experience.
“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 