Street Legal

The courts uphold the rights of photographers, or anyone in the general public, to photograph the exteriors of federal buildings from public places.

Hurray for the first amendment!

Are you a terrorist?

I think not.

The TSA may think so though.

Check out the TSA poster on the blog Photography Is Not A Crime.

California Reality

Back in my blog post of December 27, 2009 I talked about looking for a scene I had shot back in 1990, and even showed a sample of it.  I was not able to find the exact scene last time, thinking it had changed so much as to be unrecognizable.  Well, I was back out on the west coast last week, and undeterred, I decide to keep trying to find that street.

This time, I walked further up and down every street in Chinatown, up and down all the hills, peeked into every alleyway, stared up at every building, until finally, at the bottom of Jackson Street, I felt a kind of six sense about it.  I turned a corner, feeling somehow I was close, and sure enough, I was there!

Amazingly, most of the scene was intact 20 years later, save for the Pac Bell phone booth, the Far East something Service has changed to Wayne’s Liquors, and a sign of Chinese characters has come down. Unfortunately the Grassland Cocktail Lounge sign as seen better days, and is no longer lit up- probably because the space is for rent.  I doubt it will survive another year, but who knows.

And, the Chinese restaurant not visible in the foreground is now a Thai restaurant, all of which, if you are interested on Kearny, at Jackson.

The end is the beginning

Dateline September 1- First shoot day on my new photographic project. I venture to Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx with my trusty designer/creative director/friend Jan Uretsky, under cloudless 95 degree skies, in search of….

I found the oldest house in the Bronx, dated 1748, next to one of the oldest trees (okay, it looked really old), visited Santa Fe (braving coyotes and dead cows), was tempted to join the local families grilling out & enjoying the park, was not tempted to run on the beautiful Van Cortlandt Park track, and followed the remnants of the “Old Put” railroad where trains did run on the tracks.

photo ©2010: Jan Uretsky

I am still working on defining the theme, tightening the parameters, setting the style and tone, but sometimes you have to just jump right in, get your feet wet, even if it is just from your own sweat dripping on them.

And we met another Bob fishing in the pond, an elderly woman behind a screen who told us the whereabouts of a neighbor who drives a Yugo with the license plate YOGOGAL, some kids enjoying one of the last days before school starts, some nameless drivers looking to score riders to Westchester, and an endless parade of riders for whom this last stop of the #1 train is only the middle of their long journey home, or to work or to play….

I see dead people! In color. From 1922

Some footage from a test of Kodachrome color motion picture film circa 1922, a full 13 years before the first full length color motion picture was released. A bit dated (obviously), a bit camp, but kind of fun to see compared to our current polished digital world.



And maybe the little kid is still alive- she would only be like 92 years old.

Are you an illegal (photographer)?

Police crackdown, DC style, disregarding your first amendments rights.

WIP it Good

I am pleased to announce some of my personal work has been featured in WIP8, starting on page 45 and is available for download here.