NEW YORK RAMBLES (page 49)
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May 2024
A walk from City Hall to Union Square
I often admire the way the new can balances off the old that surrounds it; a contrapposto of style if not of thrust. Old neighborhoods however have grown so infested that I am unsure of what is balancing off of what or if there remains any balance at all. Now the dominant theme in the streets is a lack of cohesion, a Diaspora of fate.
April 2024
A Midtown ramble
What is it about simple geometries that attracts my attention? Perhaps the better question is why are they holding my attention at all? I am sure there was a day when I would just walk past such arrangements without even giving them cursory glance. Have I reached the point where I need to clutch at any source of order I can find? I would prefer to believe my eye have grown more keen.
April 2024
Walking Downtown from Nolita and back up to Soho
Even with change in the city dialed up to constant, certain neighborhoods remain a reliable source of chaos. Sometimes it sits as thick as fog.
April 2024
Circling Downtown
I should have known better, but was obsessed with capturing the shot I missed years ago, the reflection of the solar eclipse on the World Trade Center’s shinny skin. My timing was perfect, my positioning good, yet when the moment arrived, all the added expertise I carried with me failed to yield better results. Even with sunlight strangely dimmed, the cause remained too bright and elusive to the naked eye.
April 2024
A walk in Flushing
There seems to be an outbreak of homemade lawn ornaments spreading over the neighborhood. While some of these creatures resemble what has been laid out on lawns for decades, others are variants of the like I have never seen. While I do not look forward to a pandemic, a little more contagion would not be met with complaint.
March 2024
A walk up and gown Fifth Avenue on Easter
It is more of a stroll than a parade; one must not pass by too quickly when trying to show off oneÕs finery. It has also become more about displaying oneÕs creativity than refinement, though elegance does make itself known. This growing informality has led to an increased participation of pets, both real and imagined, though I cannot always tell if their owners know the difference.
March 2024
A walk across Flushing
There once was a time when people dreamed of leaving the concrete jungle to reside with a little plot of land where some greenery might be had and flowers even grown. This concept seems so obsolete now as the cutthroat desire for parking spaces overrides all other concerns. I might forgive the replacement of gardens with concrete if this only reflected a commitment to practicality. What really seems to be happening is a retreat from love.
February 2024
Rambling from Downtown to Soho
Dragons on the streets of New York? It is the year for them. Although plenty of shots were to be had along the parade route, I was left unsatisfied and began following one dragon back to its lair. The incongruity of opposing elements can go a long way in setting up a good shot, but I found this dragon to be more at home meandering down the sidewalks than I do most others.
February 2024
A loop between Kissena Hollow and Queensboro Hill
The snow was supposed to end at daybreak but it lingered on for hours under a threatening sky. I never saw snowflakes fall so gently. Little parachutes gliding to the ground. Time itself slowed until the cold wind arrived.
February 2024
A ramble in Kissena Hollow
It was too warm for snow. It fell anyway. Its sheer volume overwhelmed every surface, turning all a brilliant white. It was a different story once the storm passed. What was lacy quickly turned globby. Walking under any tree was like being on the loosing end of a snowball fight. Such in between scenes are not destined to illustrate pretty holiday cards, but they have their own charm.
January 2024
A walk between Madison Square and Union Square
My greatest winter nemesis is neither snow nor cold but the raking light of a low sun that will not stay out of my eyes. High contrast follows it religiously, so I try to make use of it as best I can. While I seem to be drawn more and more to the tension this creates, I worry about replacing substance with contrivance. Tempering my fears by raising details from the shadows is a little like alchemy but far from a perfect solution. Where is that perfect point between high drama and the ordinary?
December 2023
A walk from Central Park to Times Square
On a bright winter day, there can be more contrast than what is expressed between light and shadow. If rocks polished smooth by a hundred years of less than careful footsteps can be mistaken for a moonscape, then what of the walls of glass and steel that rise beyond them? I feel as if two worlds, two planets have drifted much too close to one another for comfort.
November 2023
A ramble in Kissena Hollow
A warm wet fall and sudden frost can strand leaves on every branch, turning them a deadly brown. Not so this year; public embarrassment has been averted. This year it is all fabulous yellows, reds, and scarlets, so bright that the darkest overcast cannot dull. How can such an unscripted show entrance so much?
November 2023
A Midtown ramble
It’s not that the social fabric of the city does not interest me, it’s just not my strongest suit to portray. People in my compositions tend to occupy space more than evoke. I have always been able to see deeper into places, which live a different sort of life. This is not to say that I cannot pull a rabbit from my hat.
November 2023
A walk from Central Park to Madison Square
Despite Times Square being dizzying, constantly alive with light, bold geometry and action, it still all remains capable of fading into mere background noise during those brief moments when everything comes together to form a singular sense of place. Subject matter has little relevance when photographs discover such a world.
November 2023
A ramble in Kissena Hollow
As the willows dip their slender fingers into cool autumn waters, an eruption of gold bursts forth. How can a place so familiar be transformed into a painting, a fabulous fabrication that only an artist can render? Such places make me question where I stand.
August 2023
A ramble in Kissena Hollow
Autumn is drawn out this year, every tree keeping its own timetable. This has not stopped those who feel the need to define declaring peak color has yet to arrive or has even past. All I know is when the trees above my path are completely consumed with October flame, the season I have waited for has arrived.
September 2023
A walk from the East Village to Madison Square
Street sheds have become so commonplace in New York that there is no alternative but to accept them as part of the cityÕs permanent landscape. I suppose in a city known for constant change, that which refuses to go away must evolve to fit in.
September 2023
A walk across Flushing
Although I have trained my eye to ignore subject matter and only view the landscape in terms of color and shape when I compose, I sometimes feel as if there is nothing beyond color and shape even when I desire it.
August 2023
A walk from Tribeca to Union Square
Have I forgotten how intense the summer sun can grow? The light is beautiful today, the air, crisp, and yet beneath this perfection I feel beaten down, plodding more than walking as the morning catches up with noon. Logic demands a retreat but I refuse to remove myself from the street. I have been in love hate relationships before.
August 2023
A walk across Flushing
There is a current running through the residential streets I walk, one as familiar as my own heartbeat. I know all its elements, its spacing, its rhythm. This is the foundation of my compositional balance. Small adjustments however have grown into a sea of change. I have been watching all I know being replaced by a far more clunkier tune, one that fails to hold me. Will there come a day when no one understands my work because its aesthetic is too divorced from what passes for reality?
July 2023
A walk from Hudson Yards to the East Village
What gives with the plaza at Hudson Yards? Why do I enjoy walking through it but I never linger. I suppose it’s landscaping is designed to impress but its welcome only goes so far; an over friendly kiss on the cheek from a stranger I will never really know.
June 2023
A walk about Coney Island
The day was threatening from the start. I took predictions of rain seriously but I could not bring myself to miss the Mermaid Parade. As it turned out, it was a good day except for the humidity. Then as if on cue, a bolt of lightning dashed across the sky just as the last marchers on the boardwalk passed by. The deluge arrived a moment later forcing everyone to scatter. I held my ground in an attempt to capture the the action, the downpour, the moment. Then every drop of moisture left suspended in the air decided to fall at once. Then it was over, the air refreshed.
June 2023
A walk from Vinegar Hill to Hudson Yards
Outside of the enormity of the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges, there is little left to this neighborhood that rekindles my past association with it. If a few buildings remain familiar, they now cater to people who seem foreign and strange to me. Tourists even wander about as if it is normal for them to be here. This change may be held as a success story but for me, it is an unwelcome reminder that I am the one who is becoming foreign and strange to this city.
June 2023
A short walk in Kissena Hollow
I stayed inside through the worst of it, but could not resist being drawn outside by the blood red sun. I’ve done risky things before in order to get a coveted shot in but this is different. The smoke pouring down from Canada does not care how well I navigate dangerous cliffs or crumbling ruins; it burns and it chokes without discrimination. In the end I missed the best color of the day, and that of the sun, which buried itself in nicotine stained clouds.
May 2023
A ramble through Midtown and Chelsea
Sometimes I think I can plan a walk that will take me all the way from one side of the city to the other without ever getting one good glimpse of it.
May 2023
A walk from Vinegar Hill to Bed-Sty
I’ve learned to be less critical of the street murals I encounter. All are some sign of life amidst what too often appears lifeless. To ask who painted them and why seems impertinent.
April 2023
A walk across Flushing
No matter how familiar some neighborhoods are, they seem born anew with each passing day.
April 2023
A walk up and down Fifth Avenue
There are many reasons not to like the Oculus; a bit too opulent, perhaps too pretentious. It feels more like an elaborate shopping mall than a transportation hub yet there is no denying its ability to impress. I always approach with some reluctance in my step and then cannot hep but raise my camera to take a shot. The light it swims in is just magic. Perhaps I should forget the rest.
March 2023
A zigzag between the East and West Village
The light is extraordinarily bright and raking this time of year. It makes walking down streets both exuberayting and painful. I find it exhausting yet I cannot turn away from this brilliance.
Copyright 2023 Alan Petrulis All Rights Reserved