Posts Tagged ‘Archives’
Archives post #051
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As threatened, today brings you an ‘archives’ post, as a continuing spate of winter weather has absolutely grounded all of my ambitions and I’ve got nothing new to present today.
On February 20th in 2014, a similar climatological situation saw me offering a post on a few of my favorite NYC bridges. Check out ‘approaching triumph’ if you’re interested in such matters.
As established during the hermitage which saw me recovering from the busted ankle, the conceit underlying exactly which posts I’m pulling out of backup for a second look is entirely calendrical in nature. Everything presented as a part of these archives posts were published on this date, in their respective years, sometime between 2009 and 2025.
Yes, I’ve been doing this blog for a pretty long time now.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On this date in 2018, ‘scarcely be’ described the scene, as observed in the dead of night, at the fabulous Newtown Creek’s Grand Street Bridge where the currently undefended border of Brooklyn and Queens can be both experienced and surmounted. Miss those nights, wandering around the concrete devastations all by myself. This was when I still was using headphones when scuttling about, a habit I had to drop during COVID when things starting getting weird out there.
There were just a few times that I thought I was in trouble during that interval, and I either got lucky or the other guy decided that it wasn’t worth the trouble to jump me. There was one interaction with a creature of the streets that was extremely disturbing, one I’ve mentioned only to a few close friends and my old bartender in Astoria. Weird shit, yo.
Don’t ask, won’t talk about it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In 2020, ‘those miniscules’ was published here, which confessed to a bout of trespassing around Newtown Creek’s Dutch Kills tributary. The focus for these shots was the DB Cabin rail bridge. What you don’t see in these shots is who I was trespassing with, an elected official who represented this section of LIC whom I was attempting to ‘sell’ the concept of converting the Montauk Cutoff into public space. Didn’t happen, and now the cutoff is basically a homeless camp. Good show, NYC.
Back tomorrow, likely with another archives post. Good news is that the weather is meant to cure up around Pittsburgh over the next week, meaning I get to resume my happiness.
“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 #050
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
If everything is going to plan as this post is being written, on Friday the 6th of December, this should be the last of the archives postings.
Presuming that the weather was on my side this week, as the forecast suggests it will be – and that my ankle problems weren’t too severe when I started revving up again – there should be new material appearing here next week. Can’t wait to see whatever it is that Pittsburgh wants to show me, but one remains a bit hobbled. There’s still an entire month of PT in front of me, after all.
2013’s ‘moist verdure’ joined in with the railfanning cultists at MTA’s annual nostalgia train subway ride.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Queens used to enjoy taunting me to photograph her pains, and would often serve up interesting ‘amuse bouche’ appetizers at my doorstep, something which – so far – which Pittsburgh doesn’t do that often. Here, I’ve got to go and find it, but there you are. Can’t have everything served on a silver platter.
2016’s ‘loathsome tittering’ offered yet another hullabaloo breaking out on my old corner in Astoria.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Finally…
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.
2021’s ‘almost illegible’ is right about when I had decided to move out of NYC. It also contains an excellent recipe for lemonade, a favorite joke, and a recommendation for listening to the Who. Rough year, 2021.
“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 #049
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned the other day, this week’s posts are being written on Friday the 6th of December, and with any luck at all I’ve been out for some sort of limited walk by this point. The broken ankle situation has been traumatic, and I’m exhibiting somewhat phobic behavior towards flights of stairs – particularly during descent. This is natural, I guess, but every rise and run that I cross reminds me vividly of the fall which snapped my ankle in three and condemned your humble narrator to months of painful hell.
2011’s ‘An Oil spill… in Queens’ detailed a location on the Queens side of Newtown Creek from which oil was seeping from the bulkheads into the water. In the years since, containment and a plan for remediation are underway, or so I’m told.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One hopes that ‘overstatement’ isn’t the reaction to that declaration.
This was a dramatically painful and literally crippling injury. Required surgical correction, which itself was painful in the extreme, and the recovery period was marked by two months of constant nerve activity which felt like a burn. It’s expected, I believe, to be a bit apprehensive as you approach the very same physical tasks which ended so badly not too long ago. Gun shy, me. Step shy, actually.
2018’s ‘frenzied letter’ showed off a few night shots gathered around Newtown Creek and summarizes the locations where they were gathered.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Since the surgical cast came off, which was a little over a month ago, your humble narrator has been ‘playing ball’ with the physical therapy operation connected to the Surgeon’s office. Things there have been going very well, and I think that my PT folks are actually a little surprised at how fast my recovery is moving along. ‘A plus-plus’ is how they’ve rated my situation. It’s why I’m wearing shoes again rather than one of the braced walking boots.
I’m walking slowly, however, and with a pronounced limp. Still having problems with the ‘push forward’ part of my gait.
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.
2022’s ‘ruptured hopes’ was gathered during my last weeks in NYC, after a lifetime tenancy. I wanted to see everything, one last time.
“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 # 048
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Circumstance and weather often decide how active your humble narrator is at any given time. Sometimes it’ll actually be bad weather that draws me out and about, contravening logic and sense, whereas any random injury or odd medical situation can idle the camera and force me to shelter in place at HQ for extended intervals.
The recent ankle situation is one of those random injuries, for instance. Normally, it’s two short walks (approx 3-5 miles) and one long one (8-10 miles) every week. Given that the ground in Pittsburgh, at this writing, is covered in a half inch of hard clear ice and I’m recovering from a busted ankle – discretion is the better part of valor.
In 2013’s ‘linger strangely’ I apparently needed to release a poop into the wild, the urgency of which was a torment while transversing from LIC back to Astoria while on a photo walk. Furthermore, I decided to write about the experience. Y’know… Pittsburgh has public bathrooms deployed all over the place… just imagine that, New Yorkers.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m sure it’s going to be agony when it warms up this week and I attempt my first outing. This week’s posts are being written on Friday the 6th, as a note. I know where my first photo session will be, and I’ve been planning it for roughly a month since the cast came off. It’s as important to know where you’ve been as it is to have a plan for where you’re going.
2015’s ‘cyclopean endeavor’ saw a humble narrator focusing in on the Queens side progress of the Kosciuszcko Bridge replacement operation. This was just a part, of course, of a multiple years long series of posts.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back in Astoria, when the weather wasn’t on my side, or I just didn’t feel like wandering around Newtown Creek at night, I’d set up the tripod on my porch and shoot the moon. Like Subways entering the station, moon shots are HARD to pull off, but they’re all about the technical side of things. The satellite is moving quite a bit faster through the sky than the naked eye would suggest, and the combination of a super bright subject set against the fuligin darkness of the night sky… t’aint easy. More fails than wins.
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.
2017’s ‘second search’ saw me playing around with the moon, camera wise.
“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 #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.
The Newtown Pentacle 