A glimpse, or a taste…

9:45pm, Brooklyn, NY, deep in Sunset Park.

I could still hear the sound of the dancing above and the clinking of Corona bottles.

As I crept along the dark passageway I remember thinking, “the tacos were REALLY good!” I was looking for the bathroom to the small, pleasantly authentic Mexican restaurant just above. Somehow, however, I had managed to stumble upon what felt like a set from Saw XXIV, right down to the eerily dripping pipes and odd scurrying sounds originating just out of sight. Common sense dictated I go no further…

Mere moments later, with great release I was directed to the bathroom IN the restaurant. After, as I washed my hands, I realized I must have found my way into the neighbor’s basement. Who knows what horrors may have waited… and si senora, another Negro Modelo Especial, por favor!

4:00pm, Brooklyn, NY, the 7th Ave stop on the Q train.

As I descended the stairs I could immediately tell there was something amiss: it wasn’t difficult.

The normally quiet station was filled with grumbling occupants, milling about, threading the open doors of the oddly dormant train. Having previously experienced a near panicked crowd on the Staten Island Ferry thanks to a police macing I wasn’t eager to join the masses, but in New York, a show is a show, and so I lingered on the stairs, ready for a quick escape should something tragic occur.

25 minutes later, with the crowd’s ranks further swollen, I left the station for greener pastures… or rather, running trains.

2:30pm, Brooklyn, NY, and fresh snow had fallen that morning.

As I walked to one of my favorite diners in the neighborhood, shivering in too few clothes, as I am wont to do when the cold first descends, I noticed the shocking contrast between the green leaves and the snow. It took a moment for it to really sink in: the green leaves were ON TOP of the snow.

A jarring yet satisfying twist on the usual order of business.

shot with an iPhone 3G

8:30pm, Manhattan, on a mercilessly cold and blustery midwinter night.

It took a moment to register, but soon I recognized the shape of a body huddled beneath the shivering blanket. The form seemed so at odds with the warm and vibrant scene just over it’s shoulder: a rainbow of flowers bloomed behind the glass and everything seemed right in that organized world. Though separated by only a few feet, I was devastated by the distance between the two.

shot with an iPhone 3G

2:00pm, on a bitterly cold February afternoon, hours behind schedule, in a photo studio below the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.

The make-up was finally finished and the set-up was complete, but the studio was cold… far too cold for me, and I was wearing clothes and a hat. I couldn’t help but wince when I looked at our first model and saw her standing barefoot on the hard floor. As we marched heater after heater into the studio in an effort to increase the comfort level I crossed my fingers as the final preparations were made. There would be only one chance: we had to get it right.

shot with an iPhone 3G

2:30pm, midtown Manhattan, the sidewalks were full of shoulders angling and jerking: the busy dance of coming and going.

I stood in front of a bank of televisions as they squawked noiselessly behind plate glass: all flashing their non-news… save for one. There was something macabre about the image as it hung there, frozen, quivering ever so slightly in time to some imagined pulse. It was monstrous and delicious in the way that anything that shakes you free from urban repitition can be (lock the door, down the stairs, board the train, up the stairs, open wallet, etc, etc.).

shot with an iPhone 3G

Mid-afternoon on a blustery day, though not quite winter, since it seems we don’t have those in New York anymore.

The scent of fish was strong as I rounded the corner having just come from Dim Sum in Brooklyn’s, then new-to-me, Chinatown. The abundance was the second thing you noticed: the possibilities were boundless and the prices reasonable! But could they sell it all? After a brief tour of the bounty I shuffled home with a small bag of razor clams and a pound of LIVE shrimp knowing for certain that my taste buds would thank me.

shot with an iPhone 3G

6:00pm, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and the threat of snow was in the air.

It was Christmas Eve, 2006, and our small family’s holiday goblets were filled with Dew: the kitchen was a blur of activity as the roast was pulled from the oven and the haunting smell of fresh Pillsbury crescent rolls washed over me. It was the land of plenty, and we were Americans.

4:00am, South Beach, Miami, and the breeze from the sea was warm and relaxing.

The shouts of drunken fools echoed off the shimmering store front windows. At this time of the morning, on the streets of Miami there are far more wares displayed for sale than those kept behind the darkened windows of the local stores. Here walk beautiful, plastic people. This image spoke to me of that.

shot with a Nokia 6682

Evening, Chinatown, New York: a stolen moment.

It was a dark alleyway deep within the nooks and crannies of Chinatown proper, and as I leaned against a corner soaking it all in, this personal vignette presented itself to me: a cigarette and a moment of solitude before returning to the surely frantic din of the restaurant kitchen.

shot with a Nokia 6682