New York ghost

The orange color is fading away. After the walls of a full room then a big square in a street, here is a piece of hair style. Kind of a ghost in a strange dream. Where is this long construction tunnel leading ? I actually like the feeling of these provisional set-ups. At least the walking people are protected from any accidental fall of a piece of construction material. And it changes the atmosphere. As rough as it looks, it shows some respect to the city life. Whatever happens in New York, it is always visually striking. I cannot imagine such an installation in Paris. You can even have a glance of green leaves on the left side. It seems like a path to enlightenment. Maybe at the end the mystery is resolved. The red haired character reaches fulfillment and we haven't shot this picture for nothing…

New York disappearance

In the last photograph, I felt absent, here I see what I felt like. In this orange square, reminiscent of the walls of the hotel lobby where I shot the last picture, there is the faint silhouette of the photographer in action. It actually looks like a giant tinplate. I don't remember what it was exactly, maybe the window of an art gallery in the Chelsea district, but the feeling of disappearance is strong. Even the tree looks like a ghost. I actually wonder whether there is a tree in this street. The only thing that is objectively present is the brick wall pattern. Hey, maybe it is to remind me of a lens test, the one typically used in amateur photography magazine to show the edge sharpness and the distorsion of a new lens ? Going back to the basics ? I hate these tests. They seem to be a caution for the journalists who are writing the articles : Don't worry guys, we are not prone to be influenced by the manufacturer's marketing claims. Who cares ?

New York social life

Being there gave me the impression to be part of the city life. As a photographer, one is never really in the life, one is next to it, like being in a parallel world that one cannot touch. The purpose is nonetheless to record this world so that it appears real. Concentrated on seeing what is going on, I never really seem to participate. And here, I only had the impression to be included, because I was invited and it was kind of a strange crowd, so I felt part of it. But being included does not mean I mingled with everybody and exchanged cards. I felt isolated and non existent, although I may have been apparent to the eyes of the participants. But I saw the scene as if I was looking at a 19th century painting of a mundane salon gathering. And it made me think about the very difficult job of the set designers on period movies. How do the most talented ones manage to reconstruct bygone times so well ? 

New York Flatiron flyer

On this one, I didn't have to quickly calculate shutter speed and camera rotation. Another way to catch movement. I didn't do anything. All automatic… I am a lazy guy and I always try the easiest way. All I knew is there was no lag when I pressed the button, so I had a chance to get it. And the guy is actually flying. But the poor Flatiron building that I like so much is truncated. Sometimes one has to make a choice… And someone really missed a picture or she got the Flatiron in all its majesty and is happy to see the result on the back screen of her camera.

New York wheels

I have only one regret, I would have liked the wheels to be oval, just like in the old Lartigue photographs of racing cars that he took when he was around 7. When I was that age, I already fiddled with cameras but I was only playing with my father's Leicas, dreaming about these beautiful pieces of precision machinery. I remember having spent hours to make a wooden mock up of his IIIG to play the role of the photographer, running with it around my neck. Here the wheels are still almost undistorted, but the background is blurred, thank you. Following the horse carriage at the right speed with the right shutter speed was luck though. Too bad Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth weren't sitting in the back…  

New York food

Well it is food in New York, but it is not New York food, it is Philly's Cheese steak, a Philadelphia specialty that no French is probably familiar with. Anyway, the guy at the window is not eating that kind of sandwich. He seems to be gulping a big bowl of salad. At least he is in a room with a view. I think it is 34th Street and there are a lot of people taking this street at any time. There is so much light in this restaurant that it is certainly not comfortable. Usually, the chic restaurants in this city are very dark. You can't see what you are eating. So we have a situation here that is kind of reverse. The restaurant light acts as a big diffuse system projecting in the street. Another movie set for a street action sequence that looks more like a boring documentary than a film noir masterpiece.

New York life

Midtown boom around 7 PM. Just getting out of my hotel after an interminable queue at the check in desk and a painful flight from Paris. Suddenly, instead of going to rest in my new room, I need to get out and breathe the street atmosphere. It is never disappointing and I was lucky enough to have many things happening at the same time. Since I was using a wide angle 24 mm lens, a lot of things are in focus, but here, I don't have the flat effect I managed to have on the previous pictures. This  confirms the fact that it is not a question of focal length, it depends on the scene and of course on the photographers position, but that is obvious enough. The problem here is to fill the frame and here I had patches of colors and values that give depth. But I have no definite subject and it might be a problem for the viewers. To me it's fine since the subject is precisely that whole complex display of life.

New York dusk

These big SUVs are really agressive. But not really beautiful. I miss the old American cars of the sixties with their huge fins and the chromes. Colors were imaginative. You could have a bright green DeSoto, a pink Pontiac, a red and white Buick. All this reflected some happiness, or were meant to convey it, if you have a more cynical mind. But it had a definite charm, even though it was a bit " too much". Today, things are more serious. Most big SUVs are black. With tainted windows. They seem like a block of power meant to bully anyone next to it. And of course, no more imaginative shapes. These gross vehicles all look the same. And when the doors brutally open to throw up a bunch of black suit security guys hiding a tiny "powerful" person impatient to get in a restaurant, a luxury shop or a hotel, you no longer dream of being one of them. Here, on seventh Avenue, just across Penn Station, the car is empty, waiting for its cargo load of contemporary "power" caracters. But, the shiny black reflects wonderfully the background lights.

New York danger

This would not be seen in Paris. Explosive shot. Explo Powder, inc. Bronx, N.Y. And you can see that there is nobody around, apart from me of course. Too dangerous, maybe. Probably not.  I don't know what this truck was here for. Its presence was mesmerizing. It reminded me of an old French movie from the fifties by Georges Clouzot with Yves Montand and Charles Vanel, Le Salaire de la Peur. Two losers paid to drive a truck full of explosives along a treacherous road in order to put an end to an oil rig fire. Here the environment is surprisingly quiet. The truck is beautifully clean, right in the middle of a big civilized city. The reflecting light from a building on the other side of the street gives an amazing glow to the imposing machine. It was a sort of magnet for photographers and it got me.

New York shade

More compression here, but a kind of vertical compression. It seems that the people are going to be crushed by a huge machine. Or maybe they are going to be swallowed by some kind of exotic animal whose mouth lures at street level. A monstrous snake ? Nobody seems to be frightened, no hurry there. Life goes on as usual. Ah, I know why the population is so quiet. There is a police patrol car right there. The bystanders feel protected. As for me, it is too late. I have already been swallowed. I am far back in the mouth and soon will be gulped in the digestive system of the beast. Actually, it couldn't be more appropriate. I am protecting myself in the shade of Grand Central Station, the huge building is ready to swallow the soon arriving commuters crowd. Aren't train stations in the middle of big cities like strange animals digesting every day millions of human beings around five PM ? And they trow them up the next morning, fresh and ready to go to work…

New York mess three

Here we are gradually coming back to color. There are very few touches of color on this mainly grayish street situation. And once again, it looks flat. No depth, destroyed perpective, confusing scene. Worse of all, although it has nothing religious, it seems to be composed like a cross with this steel vertical pole right in the middle and the complex truck crossing the street. I wonder what pushed me to take this picture. I must have been in my "flat" mood. But I was fascinated by the intense life going on in this busy city. Maybe it is the lens I was using that makes this all seem on the same level. I must have been looking for this effect since there are several pictures giving me the same impression. Although there is a foreground formed by the red cone and the flag, and a background with a faraway building and even a tiny bit of sky, it appears compressed. And no, I wasn't using a telephoto lens. It is more likely the density of the life happening at this moment that seem to compress more the time than the space. At least for me.

New York mess again

Another flat picture. It seems to have no volume. Everything looks on the same plane. Even the contrast is flat and it appears even more so in black and white. The U.S.Armed Forces recruiting Station is here for you, looking more like an electricity power station than a bureau. One Way or another the guys entering there must be Hard Rock. And We can handle… them, maybe. Since we are on 7th Avenue and there is Spider Man waiting for them in the Hotel Carter round the corner. You could find a few more written signs in this picture, but just with what we first saw, we could almost build a story. This is indeed New York !

New York mess

This is no work of art, although it could have been. It is flat, like a two dimensional painting. Important thing : this photograph includes no sky albeit being an outside shot. Then there is this ray of sun in the grid, a diagonal line that seems to exactly cut the middle rectangle. Weird. We are sort of separated, forbidden to reach "America Gourmet Food". Now this is a strong statement from a French point of view. Everyone knows how contemptuous the French are about food from the New World, as they used to call America. Then you can figure out that this shop actually seems to be Chinese… Would this be Chinese food ? And if you are not satisfied to be in a kind of two dimensional gridded place, there are two exits. Which one is the good one to get out of this nightmare ? 

New York Moma

Sometimes museums are relaxing. You can always find benches in the galleries in order to contemplate the paintings. Not only they exist in every museum the world over, but they are really useful. I look forward to dump myself on one of those places after wandering for hours at a slow pace nourishing my eyes. In this picture, they are very tempting. What seems surprising is that it all looks fake. It gives the impression that I directed the shot and placed the people exactly where they should be. Even the boy walking out of the frame seems to have been carefully positioned, almost like a plastic toy. The couple in the middle looks like an advertising for a travel agent. The man is smiling and in a laid back conversation with his wife or girl friend. The styling of the clothes is just perfect. As for the fourth person, looking out, he definitely has been put there to open the picture. One little boy on the left, one young man on the right. There is ample space for a base line and all sorts of relevant information. But no, this not advertising, it is all a frozen moment, a fragment of reality. What photography is all about.

New York Met

There is a recent trend in our way of life. People seem to want to delay the way they see art. Instead of looking at the real thing, absorb the real colors, look at the details or simply contemplate for a moment and get immersed in the artist's universe, many museum visitors simply use their fabulous interface to the world, their smartphones to record and collect as many paintings, works of art, or simply moments of their lives to postpone the pleasure. Maybe they prefer to see things at a smaller scale on the screens of their electronic devices. Maybe they reserve their appreciations for the tough times they spend in the public transport, a way to abstract themselves from the promiscuity of the crowd. Interestingly, in this picture, no one seems to care about the Picasso exhibited on the wall. Three persons are sharing this moment in different manners. Leaning on the wall, one seems to be in another world. Another one is carefully recording the work of art, more preoccupied by the framing on her phone, and the last one is actually photographing the scene, not really concerned by the painting, but more by the situation…

New York layers

Typical New York cityscape… And it has layers, just like clothes. First you have the yellow taxi, a nice coat… of yellow. Then you have the white bus, just like a fancy dress. And under then what ? Victoria's secret of course ! You can't miss it, it's meant to be exposed at some point. Nothing better than this city underwear. Beyond it, we have the very tempting flesh of the building, the essence of the town. But wait ! Have you seen what is stamped on it somewhere on the left ? Looks like an explanation : Gift Wrap. So all this means to say that Victoria's Secret beautiful underwear is a gift wrap for the grayish wall behind. There you are, we have decoded all the city's secrets, and the meaning of the photograph. Just a few layers before you discover the truth. This is indeed a genuine critical analysis… But don't be fooled, photography is fun.

New York skyline

Back to daylight. Dusk to be more specific. The East River seen from Williamsburg gives probably one of the best sights of the famous New York skyline. No one living in Manhattan can have that. They are included in the view… This place appears to be very popular. You can see ladies with shopping bags when there is not one single shop around. It actually looks like this young person has crossed the river back from a shopping spree in Soho. Maybe she was able to walk on the water ? This town is so full of miracles that this one might have happened. And the kid in the background might well be furious as he throws a stone at the river because he was not able to do the same. In the mean time, the sun setting gives incredible red hues to the Manhattan buildings so if this girl did not walk on the water we have at least a miracle shot. Nobody will tell me that a miracle did not happen at this moment.

New York and the walls

I don't know if this can be identified as a wall. It seems temporary, not solid enough for a wall. But it does vibrate like no walls usually do. Corrugated surfaces are prone to effects with light and this was the right hour. So it defeats the art painted on it or maybe it is intentional. The result of it is that it does not appear as a wall anymore, separating two pieces of space, one public where I am walking, the other one protected from any intrusion. No this vertical surface becomes the living part of the area, like many others in the surrounding streets. Walls usually are a bad symbol, the start or the result of many feuds. They mean that human beings don't trust each other, sometimes for good reasons. But here, in Bushwick, imagination has transformed those vertical surfaces into a more friendly function. They have become a welcome improvement, replacing ugly defensive devices into places to express the mood of the inhabitants. At least I see them like that.

New York corner

After the corner window for the watching dogs, here is the classic New York corner shop for us. Opened 24/7 ! Free delivery ! Do we have such a place in Paris ? No… For fresh and fancy delicatessen (written above the shop ) we have Fauchon, Place de la Madeleine, certainly not opened all the time, but much more expensive and maybe better in terms of food quality. Can't have everything. But on a street corner in Brooklyn, this place is rather typical. I did not stop to buy anything there. Maybe I should have tried. What fascinated me was the fake stone liner right on the corner. The blue light on the side adds to the attraction. And of course the fact that you could find everything including ice-cream and money from their ATM. Fantastic ! Regulations in France forbid these kind of places. Shops are not allowed to open all night, most of them have to close on Sunday. A number of other regulations of all types would have this place shut in no time by the watchful French administration. 

New York slavery

We are still in Brooklyn. What is going on with these two dogs ? We don't know what is in the head of other human beings. How could we know what dogs are thinking ? They look very serious. They seem to be watching rather comfortably what is happening in the freezing street.  And what came to my mind at their sphinx like posture seems even more appropriate. They appeared to me like prison wardens, surveying from their glass tower each angle of the barbed wired courtyard full of aimless inmates. Were they wondering which future slave among those would take care of them ? Who would lovingly feed them twice a day ? Who would get up early in the morning to take them for a daily walk whatever the weather ? Who would have to reorganize his life " because of the doggy, you know…" ? Or were they simply waiting for love ?