Big box stores in China are a revelation. In how many different types of things can be found under one roof, in the routine of a typical shopper, in the way people spend their day. Kick off your shoes, read … Continue reading
Last April, I was in Detroit for some varied work. During one assignment profiling a huge city park there (possibly designed by Frederick Olmstead) for HOUR magazine, I met Kathy Makino, a woman who is single-handily helping to bring about … Continue reading
The PBR professional bull-riding rodeo is back gracing our shores here in NYC. I shot it a few years back for the Huffington Post but never got it up here on MPT so here is a link to the full photo-story. I’ve posted a couple images below along with the text which I penned (something I rarely do). I was drawn to the event as its quite a juxtaposition having this old Western tradition in the middle of the concrete jungle.
“The Professional Bull Riders rodeo came to Madison Square Garden January 9th-11th, and the smell of 700 tons of dirt and cow manure brought out every closeted cowboy this side of the Gowanus Canal. In its modern incarnation what with jumbo-trons, pyrotechnics and corny patriotic salute to the U.S Border Patrol (a corporate sponsor), the event was basically NASCAR with live, angry animals. The fans cheered their favorite riders to eight seconds of glory, but the Garden became eerily silent when competitors were stomped and gored by their 2,000 lb. adversaries, hands slowly dipping back into their nachos as they watched the replay of the carnage above.”
Was strolling down the street minding my own tired ass business after shooting for 3 hours in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn and then a Botanica shop when I spotted this scene. Was on my way to another epic shoot and didn’t want to have to dig out my rig. But I did.
We needed a “Get the Hell out of NYC” trip the other day so we headed to Amish country for an overnight and, praise be the lord, stumbled upon an antique auction. These events are an amazing dose of Americana..the people, the stuff, the sounds. And if you are a junker like me, its the holy grail. I scored a beautifully distressed framed photo of a farmhouse from 1920 for $6, a braided rug for $9 and Fiorella bought a guitar from 1965 for $40. The auctioneer had an amazing “call” and I found its repetition to be very rhythmic and musical. Is this where Philip Glass got his musical inspirations from? Was he listening to auctions on the radio as he drove his cab in the 70′s while composing “Einstein on the Beach”?
I took a couple videos of a woman next to us knitting a blanket and loved the juxtaposition of the slowness of her work and project and the hyper-active call of the auction.
and another variation:
And here is a video of Fiorella buying a guitar. Note her trying to outbid herself at the end..so cute.
Cool story this week for the SouthBrooklynpost.com concerning its superfund status. Got some cool images of the canal and the life around it.
Just returned the other day from my second jaunt to the land of my girlfriend. Spent 3 weeks, a couple in Lima then a week in the south where my moms and I tackled a day on the famed Inca Trail and then took in Machu Picchu. Twice in 9 months..never thought that would happen..so don’t need to go there for about 5 years but lots more to see in Peru. I would like to visit a more recently discovered ruin in the north named “Kuelap” that is said to rival Machu Picchu and gets just a handful of tourists. Also, the deserts of Ica are amazing for paleontology. Take a walk back in there and u will literally stumble on exposed whale skeletons.
All the images here are from my G9 Point and Shoot. I shot 20 rolls of film but haven’t gotten them souped yet. The images are actually in the chronological order I shot them starting on Dec 21 to Jan 11th. Lots more to come…
Step out of the seclusion of the up-scale areas of Lima (a city of 11 million) and this is a typical street corner with fairly typical people in Peru, excluding the highlands (the Andean regions) or in the Amazon.
Unintentional art installation from third world telephone wiring
Sunset at the beach two hours south of Lima. Colors have not been tweaked.
Clowns are all the rage at parties in Lima these days. They come in mid-party and pass out balloons and shit. We made a crazy hat which we were obsessed with doing for at least an hour...New Years night, from about 2-3am.
Flash lighting up water in the air at the beach during a quick New Years ceremony on the beach before sunrise.
These ghosts haunted us on our way back to the crib.
Paracas, a chain of islands off the Southern coast of Peru. Labeled the "poor mans galapagos" by Lonely Planet, its populated by tons of birds and fat little penguins. 100 years ago the tens of thousands of tons of bird guano was harvested there every year was Peru's richest exportable resource. It still is 5o meters deep on the islands and groups of men live on the islands for periods of four months at a time harvesting it every year.
A gorgeous lake in the desert isn't impervious to the spoils of Coke.
Controlled(?) burn off the Pan-American Sur on way back to Lima. Would of pulled over if I was driving..love the arrangement of people
Had Chicharron for breakfast. Super tasty/super greasy ham sandwiches.
Pigeons at the San Fransisco Church in Central Lima. The catacombs below it house 100's of mid-evil skeletons.
On our way up to a giant jesus statue on the top of mountain in Central Lima.
Lima.
Street scene in outer neighborhood of Lima.
Tico taxi's, a Korean mini, are ubiquitous in the south of Peru. This was in Cusco, the mid-evil city which one departs from to Machu Picchu
3 Andean girls descending from their mountain village south of Cusco.
It rained on my dear mum and I for about 5 hours on our hike on the Inca Trail. This was an amazing blossom off of a yucca plant, probably 15 ft high.
Even on our one day hike of the normally 4 day hike of the Inca trail, we still witnessed changes in Eco-systems. Here, we rounded the corner into a cloud forest valley with waterfalls just down the way. Was one of the most stunning natural settings I have ever laid my fairly well traveled feet.
Cloud Forest
Winay-Wayna ruin. Only accessible from the Inca Trail. Pre-Colombian Inca ruin with a huge amphitheater of terraced farming, 3 hours from Machu Picchu.
A bromeliad growing on a moss covered tree in the cloud forest.
The feet of an Andean porter on the Inca trail. His sandals are made from car tires.
Machu Picchu.
Llama at Machu Picchu. The flashy earrings are so the owners can tell them apart in a herd as they roam.
Survey of beef heads in market in Cusco.
Gordo nino en la mercado en Cusco.
Andean women of different regions wear different style of hats. This woman had such serious business concerning the man in the picture she is holding that I could freely shoot this usually camera shy culture.
This was a hilarious attempt of Chicken Cordon Bleu. The restaurant was called "Gordon Blue" and it was the house specialty so I gave it a try. 15/soles which was $5.00. The ham was baloney and the cheese was a white farmers fresh cheese so didn't really work but chicken was fried deliciously but jesus, they were nuts! That's a ton of food!!. Clockwise from Chicken at bottom: Choclo, the giant corn of Peru. Fresh cut french fries. Salad with strips of the fresh cheese, white rice with a poached egg, fried plantain.
View of mountains across from Machu Picchu.
The Urubamba river flows by Machu Picchu on its way north 450 miles to meet up with the Amazon river and then flows east to the Atlantic. This is the same river that the community I worked with in the amazon lived next to. At this point, the river is still near its headwaters in the high Andean mountains but its making its way down into the rain forest.
The permanent backdrop for caskets at an Italian funeral home in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn was more then I could of ever wished for in a portrait setting. I have never, in 16 years of work (give or take…scary), had such a setting present itself. Still wasn’t easy making the shot as it was a dimly light room with low ceilings and a slightly bewildered photographer treading on kinda strange ground..but I got these and walked out into the frigid night air impassioned and thankful.
These black and white shots are from the same story which is featured on the on-line magazine I am working for, The South Brooklyn Post. The story is about the going-ons in a usually insular and secretive Italian social club in Carroll Gardens and the war going on between them and another local club over who gets the usage rights to an religious idol they use in a procession. Here is the link to the story: Van Westerhout Cittadini Molesi Social Club
The on-line newspaper I am working with just published a story on an old Italian bakery in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. Some fun shots in the series…
