🇺🇸 New York

Photography

Jul 4

Written By Suganth

98609 steps, 76.38 kms, 5 days.

That’s how much my partner Meg and I walked when we both visited Manhattan. I’ve always dreamed of visiting New York for it’s architecture, the beautiful long streets, the Central Park, the skyscrapers. But nothing could have prepared me for the energy of New York when I visited for the first time. The energy is incredible and contagious, to the point that we forgot we were on vacation and our walking pace was way faster. As soon as we landed in the city, we went out and stayed out until late night. Somehow we got tired but the city didn’t. There was so much to do, so much to see and the city was so alive. This was my first Welcome to New York moment.

New York in Spring

My favourite kind of photo in the world is the one with a foreground. We visited in May, and oh boy, spring was in full bloom. New York was not shy to flaunt its beautiful trees in front of its incredible architecture. The flourscent green leaves adds beautiful contrast to the pale buildings in the distance. When we were walking through the central park, it felt like I was capturing post cards that I would cherish.

What’s on brand for New York?

I grew up watching Seinfeld and Friends, Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies. Finding these fire escapes and brick cladding and textured buildings felt like a surreal experience. As if I was part of the world I had consumed all those years.

Easy to miss the past if you are not looking

What I love about some of the streets is how they gracefully weave the past and the present. You encounter beautiful 19th-century architecture, and right next to it, a towering modern skyscraper, with people walking past as if it’s all normal. I think I’m used to newer cities and forget that cities can have a mix of past and present. I appreciate New York for keeping this past.

Monotone

On Day 4, I was surrounded by the beautiful monotone buildings. Not only you can see how different each and every architecture is, but also what kind of emotions it evokes. Visiting the 9/11 memorial was heavy on the heart but the World Trade Center Oculus created the sense of peace. Seeing NYC from the up top also made me appreciate what humans can build when they put their mind to it. NYC is the opposite of lazy, but rather an ambitious multi century achievement.

Recharge between masterpieces

After days of walking, we took a day break visiting museums. I could spend days exploring museums, and we didn’t even get to visit some famous ones like the American Museum of Natural History, Cooper Hewitt, or all the collections at the MET and MOMA. Our brief visits to the MET gave us a chance to slow down and truly appreciate Van Gogh’s stunning collection of Cypresses.

I love being in the museum and I can get lost into art for hours. My second favourite thing to do in the museum is to admire the watchers. There is something wonderful in seeing how others admire the art in their own way, sometimes even losing their sense of where they are, and what they are doing. Art has the power to transport people through different dimensions. It’s so much fun to watch them travel.

I recently stumbled upon this photo of a woman really enjoying the beautiful art. Back then cameras were not allowed and he had to take this sneaky photo. What’s beautiful is how there is a crowd of people behind her, but she stands ahead of them and got really close.

"But the more I look at Gagnon’s picture, the more this woman strikes me as a role model for how to be in the world. I want to show her to my kids, to say, “Be like this! Be like her! Get up close. Be gauche. Break from the pack. Don’t fret over what anyone thinks of you. Let your body find the forms that fit your interests. Don’t stand apart like the others — stiff, sterile and repressed.”

- Sebastian Smee, Watching the watchers, Washington Post

The Icons of New York

I have kept the icons at the end because it’s easy to fill the whole blog with them and New York has so many icons. When taking photos of the Icons, there are no bad angles, but finding unique angle is a lot more difficult than I imagined.

Take statue of liberty, probably the most photographed statue and I struggled to find a composition straight out of camera. It took me post processing and cropping to find the unique look that I was interested in.

Little Island for example is like a floating park straight of Studio Ghibili movie and if I had taken just that photo it be great, but I walked a bit more until I found an angle where the new world trade centre is visible. This made the photo a lot more unique for myself and that made me content.