On the way back from Detroit I stopped off at Niagara Falls. As always, they were breathtaking. And then, a photographic phenomena which rarely reveals itself ensued. Photographing the moisture in the air. Cosmically lovely if I do say so … Continue reading
Photographing in the darkened city of Lower Manhattan was one of the most exhilarating experiences in my 8 years in NYC. It started as I made it half way across the Brooklyn Bridge around 10pm and had a great vantage point to … Continue reading
Sunday Ritual, Crown Heights, Brooklyn, 2011 Joshua Kristal © 2011
I sometimes feel are pieces not intended to be art at all but deconstructed advertisements in the subway or old doorways with 20 years of tags or just anything that seems to of accumulated things by mans hands then worn away over the years to a state of wear. These boards in the subway where advertisements are placed are always beautiful when they rip off the twenty layers of adhesive adds before starting the process over again. Layers of cultural detritus being stripped bare down to its bones.
Shot on Broadway and 6oth.
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.
Fiorella and I attended a protest march the other day to support the Egyptian people during their 17 day struggle to throw out their entrenched leader. What struck me most, besides how horrible it feels to protest in fenced in pens surrounded by police which quickly takes any wind out of your civil disobedient sails, was the hilarious Capitalist back-drops to the protesters revolutionary signs and anti-authoritarian stance. Was a good march from Times Square to the United Nations with high spirits and lots of words of loving gratitude from the Egyptians who were happy we were showing our support. An older gent said he loved me. sweetness.
