NEW YORK RAMBLES (page 46)
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January 2021
A Zigzag between Soho and the Lower East Side
Utility, confidence, consumerism, ineptitude, boredom, drama and artistry fill the city’s streets every day, usually all at the same time. Only their proportions change.
January 2021
A walk in Flushing
While the morning light was dramatic, the day seemed quite ordinary. People were about, engaged in their everyday business, and the ducks, geese and swans took up temporary winter residency at the lake on schedule. Once home, I turned on the news just as insurrectionists began to storm the nation’s capitol. Too often we believe history is set aside for special days that stand apart from our own lives, not days with beautiful blue skies when innocence rules. Have I forgotten the attack on the World Trade Center occurred on a day when the sky was just as blue, just as clear? I suppose I was not completely caught off guard. When we have a president who has shown he cares nothing for this country, I have no expectations of him being bounded by law. In a county where the individual puts himself first, we become a land of personal grievance. This is why we have no answer for violence.
December 2020
A walk from Central Park to Times Square
So many problems walk alongside me these days that I have second thoughts whenever my eye gravitates toward the playful. Shouldn’t I be taking things more seriously? The thing is, all my work is serious. It reaches for the eternal.
December 2020
A walk through Ridgewood and Bushwick
A short day has been made shorter by a morning storm. Although the cold air has tempered, there is now as much slush on the ground as there is snow. My waterproof boots are showing themselves to be a little less waterproof than I would like. It does not matter, minor discomforts are a fair price to be out on a wondrous day. A passing squall tries to blot out the sun with a burst of snow but it’s a futile effort. Glare will rule what remains of the day.
December 2020
A ramble in Bushwick
The idea that there is a housing shortage in New York is just that, an idea. Another idea is we just have too many people already living here. Yes I know, businesses are suffering from empty streets but is there no compromise between a less harried life and sustainability. Survival dependent on growth is like betting the city’s future on a Ponzi scheme. We settle for short term answers while the sky above us continues to darken.
December 2020
A ramble in Corona and Elmhurst
Some fortify their homes in such creative ways that it is easy to forget they represent a climate of fear. This is a sign that institutions have failed us and we can only rely on ourselves. These signs have been out there for all to see for some time but it is always easier to turn a blind eye to where we are headed than to trouble ourselves with corrective measures. Now in a time of crisis, when trust is needed for our very survival, it has become the rarest commodity. We need more than a Christmas miracle this winter.
November 2020
A ramble in Corona and Elmhurst
I wanted to go out on a sunny day to capture a specific type of light. The sky refused to oblige, forcing me to dance between wave after wave of storm clouds sent my way. There is no foregoing the chance for a ramble these days. Concerns have shifted away from weather to rates of Covid infection and potential lockdowns.
November 2020
A walk through the Lower East Side and East Village
I still haven’t gotten used to the new bike lanes that push parked cars away from the curb. At this point I wonder if I ever will. They may make practical sense but my eyes find them an ill fit. I can’t say the same about curbside dinning, though I’m not so sure that I’m growing accustomed to the arrangement or if I’m just enthused about new opportunities to compose. In my mind they are even more ill fitting but my eyes seem to like them well enough. If only I didn’t have to dodge so many food servers on the street.
November 2020
An eleven mile walk between Ridgewood and Hudson Yards
It seems that since I started taking long walks again, I’ve been drawn to neighborhoods where supplies of graffiti and street art are abundant. Pretty has never really been my thing but this is something different. I find myself with a growing hunger for grittiness as if it is the only thing left that is real. When I pass into a more up kept neighborhood, I find a man desperately trying to clean a small spay painted tag off the side of his brownstone. The fumes from whatever he was using nearly knocked me off my feet. Some people would rather live with poison than with art.
November 2020
A ramble in Kissena Hollow
The Japanese Maples are flaming, their intensity burns right through me. While they scream for attention, my eyes drift further upwards to the bare treetops. The clouds sway, the branches sway and a mesmerizing ballet ensues. Moves are simple, gestures complex. In a time when so much needs attending to, can I afford to give time to such distractions? I suppose I must. I can’t go on poisoning myself every day.
November 2020
A ramble through Bushwick and East Williamsburg
Talk of reconciliation fills the airwaves, but where is it supposed to come from? We have been doing nothing but fanning the flames of hatred and then wonder why each half of the country would prefer the other half dead. Actions have consequences, a simple rule that seems to have been forgotten by nearly everyone. Will we soon be standing at the edge of an inferno? Will street art of the future have to be painted in blood to be relevant? There is something worse than a virus floating in the air. I can sense it out on the street.
November 2020
A ramble in Flushing
The rain is not heavy but there is a dampness that fills the air. Leaves that are not yet withered are quickly being drained of color. The grass as usual is oblivious to these changes. It relishes the damp fall weather when it can escape the beatings delivered by the harsh summer sun. It never grows greener than when sun loving plants grow sere. Grass has its own private spring in addition to the one it shares.
November 2020
A walk from Midtown to Harlem via Central Park
Fall color always draws people to the parks, though this year they seem more enthralled with the color than usual. Adults wander the meadows with as much glee as their kids, just happy to escape in this moment. Dystopia however is not far away. Glass towers that refuse to avert their gaze are a constant reminder. We all know what is waiting for us. We all feel prisoners of some terrible fate that will inevitably descend. But for now as we run in sunny fields and gaze at the vibrant colors, we can only imagine that a world so good cannot help bu heal itself that we will will find all put right upon our return.
November 2020
A Midtown ramble
Police helicopters hover above, most likely attempting to monitor gathering protesters that the unsettled election has brought out. There are no signs of any crowds yet though the streets are busy. Some are sitting it out for now, already settling down at curbside eateries for early drinks and dinner. If there is any normalcy to be found it is in the continuing sense that nothing is normal anymore. This disquiet hangs in the air like a fine mist, one that dampens all without the need to turn to rain.
October 2020
A ramble in Soho
Halloween has filled the streets with people but for what purpose I do not know. Only a few young children are about, trying to safely trick or treat under strict supervision. There is a restlessness flowing through the city, the type that is normally reserved for the first warm spring day. Change is in the air.
October 2020
A walk from the East Village to the West Village
The sun is so low and intense, it is slicing and dicing up every street. I always knew it was a master carver but never one this decisive.
October 2020
A walk from Union Square to Tribeca and up to Hudson Yards
Even though he City’s streets are now more comfortably populated, walking them has not grown any easier. I actually seem to be making more calculations, carefully judging the optimum distance to keep between me and everyone else. Even if my reasoning is sound, such actions create their own problems. Are we not already distant enough; a city full of strangers? Are all neighborhoods now bad neighborhoods, where everyone we pass must be considered a potential threat? A society cannot be maintained if we all hide behind computer screens and fear.
October 2020
A ramble in East Williamsburg
In neighborhoods made of polished granite and brushed steel, art is squirreled away in high towers. Where people plant tomatoes next to cornflowers in their window boxes, and front stoops serve as gathering places to shoot the breeze, art is placed where it can be shared by all. The difference lies in the way we use language. For some art is a noun, for others art is a verb.
October 2020
A walk from Bushwick to Williamsburg
New York is by no means an old city, and yet it shows off many layers of history in the way older architectural remnants sometimes remain behind when others are displaced. This can create a complex dynamic that emphasizes change as a tradition over period style. Sometimes this mismatch is too horrible to contemplate. At other times it makes a city feel alive.
October 2020
A Midtown ramble
While particular streets set aside for outdoor dining will always be more desirable than others, some efforts to take advantage of this opportunity are a clear sign of desperation.
October 2020
A ramble in Chelsea
I’ve never realized there was so much controversy over what is termed street photography until I started reading photo blogs. Not only is the very practice debated, there are arguments over who has the right to assume the title of street photographer. For me the process has always been tied to walking, becoming engaged with anything and everything I see rather than focusing on particular subject matter or a type of presentation. Too much effort is placed on definitions. Too many are trying to harness that which should not be controlled. Perhaps I’m just a guy who takes pictures?
October 2020
A walk from Times Square to Chelsea
Are we still fighting in Afghanistan? It is so easy to forget a faraway war we’ve grown so tired of. It’s like that in New York. Tired of the pandemic show, everyone wants to change the channel. Everyone is ready to go back to the way things were. There is a real disconnect across all of America. Does living in the land of optimism make it impossible to face ugly facts? It seems everything is great here until it is us who are out of a job, us who are sick, us who have a knee on our neck.
October 2020
A walk across Flushing
Patterns woven into rugs are often designed to symbolize gardens. Sometimes rugs actually are gardens.
October 2020
A ramble in Williamsburg
Graffiti, trash, these are the transient elements of the street that offer the unexpected to a composition. The foundation they lie upon can be made of similar disparate pieces, put together without regard for each other so they seem equally transient, ready to accept and shed building blocks at will. Can a true foundation rest on thin air?
September 2020
A walk across the Village
While I’m not unhappy with the results, I’m afraid the proportions of my photographs have gotten stuck in a groove. This should not be surprising since compositions flow naturally from me, from my inner sense of balance, a personal vocabulary of sorts. If I can’t change myself, perhaps I could do with a better thesaurus?
September 2020
A walk from Union Square to Tribeca and up to Hudson Yards
The city is growing increasingly more textured. Some urban patterns are exciting enough to be sewn into a quilt.
September 2020
A walk from Ridgewood to Williamsburg
Beautiful light and shadow arrays created by the city’s elevated lines typically provide an urban version of a sun dappled forest floor; at least that’s the cliché. The reality is that some trains run over hidden alleyways or create corridors of darkness and anxiety. I suppose either way, it is always about the light.
September 2020
A walk in Briarwood and Jamaica Hills
To shoot in residential neighborhoods, one must love the variables found within consistency; that’s the name of the game.
September 2020
A walk from Bed-Sty to Greenpoint
I’m surprised no one has made a horror movie about the elevated train platforms snaking through the city, having them come alive to terrorize our streets. They seem the perfect camouflaged monsters, though some already look like spiky dinosaurs hungry for their next meal. So far we have only had to put up with them spitting nuts and bolts at us. I suppose that’s scary enough.
September 2020
A ramble through Bushwick
I have left something undone. A compulsion to find completion forces me across the city where a seated woman at a street cafe looks up at me. It is no casual glance. Our eyes lock as if she has been waiting for me. I immediately know she is what drew me here. I barely slow my pace but we do not break eye contact as I pass. Then in a world of face masks and social distancing I’m gone, not a word exchanged between us. How many unknown friends do I have?
Copyright 2020 Alan Petrulis All Rights Reserved