New Years In New York
NYE/NYC
My first venture into New York City. If you are someone who has followed any bit of photography over the last century, you know how many of the world’s most famous images were taken within the 20ish square miles that makes up Manhattan. So, I was pretty excited to finally get my chance to make it here after scoring some tickets to see Phish over New Years.
Sami and I left our schedule pretty much wide open for all if the six days we would spend in the city, aside from the four nights of Phish at Madison Square Garden. This meant we had the freedom to wake up each morning and decide what we wanted to do. This daily plan would often change several times throughout each day, but that was exactly how I intended my time here to go. We could do whatever, whenever.
There were of course some things we each wanted to see while we were there (9/11 Memorial, Brooklyn, Central Park, etc.) and we made our way to each of them, seeing as much of the city as we could along the way.
The city absolutely blew me away. I am from Los Angeles, where the city is spread throughout tens of thousands of square miles. New York City is the complete opposite of that – everyone’s right on top of each other. Of course, there are a seemingly countless number of differences between these two major US cities. The most important in my eyes was New York’s transportation. Now, this is obviously coming from someone who was there for six days, but the metro systems worked for us without fail. It was always such a convenient way for us to quickly and easily get to where we wanted to go. I understand this is not always the case, but still better than the nearly nonexistent metro travel for much of the city of LA (save for the people who live near the few public transportation options).
Photography
As often is the case for my travels, photography isn’t always my top priority. I went to New York to see and experience New York, not to go make the best possible images I could. I wasn’t getting up at the crack of dawn and setting up for the best light each day (and I rarely do).
I bring a camera along with me no matter what I’m doing on a near daily basis, so these images are just that – documentations of some of the things we did and saw. That being said, I could spend an entire lifetime wondering through the streets of New York making photographs. It was immediately clear why so many of photography’s greatest contributors spent so much time here. There is so much to see, so many diverse people, things and places all packed conveniently in one location.
So, each day I’d head out with a Leica M around my neck, snapping as many images as I felt like taking. No pressure to come home with something that would sell. And in my mind, these are the images I care about the most, the ones that are documentations of the things I’m doing. These have always been my favorite images to make, and most importantly look back on.
People often argue that taking so many photos of everything pulls you out of the moment. However, I would argue against that assumption. There comes a point where the camera is just an extension of you and you don’t need to think much about snapping the photo. The images you are left with also serve to bring you back into the moment for a lifetime to come – this is the only thing that keeps me with a camera in my hand today, looking back at a visual documentation of my life.
