Shift Shots 1/18/2010

Rockefeller Center / Midtown

This photo despite being from about a year ago, is time appropriate, now that we're approaching Christmas (BTW happy Hanukkah everyone!) Rockefeller Center is the epicenter of XMas madness. The big tree bought from a chosen property in upstate New York has been trucked in and all lit up, taller than most buildings in most cities, it becomes the centerpiece of the winter-wonderland complex.

But a look to the past to see the future, come mid-january a contrasting night shot provides a glimpse into the loneliness midtown finds itself with. Avenues that can hold 6 cars across become vacant stretches of damp canyons, whispering echoes from block to block of cell phone conversations and slick tires in constant motion. The only hope for an encounter with one place in one minute is a red light, when every sound including the switch of the signal through the yellow, the red, and the green, every single motion, movement, and function, is bounced around in sound against hard urban materials: marble, concrete, iron, and layer upon layer of pavement.

And as you can see, the store appears to be shouting at the consumer to buy, buy, buy! But alas, what is a store without a consumer? The lights stay on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and although it seems a bit wrong environmentally it eases tension in my mind that there is always a light on. There is a safe feeling here in the middle of the night. That mannequin in the window reassures me of the identity and status of such a place during the hours of normals; people who think waking up before 6am is akin to capital punishment, people who believe that staying out 'late' is only until the clock strikes midnight: otherwise their subway car, or taxicab will turn into a pumpkin. And so my mind lets the air flow through my body and my muscles relax with the knowledge that the sun is due to return to the sky very soon. These are our limited moments of time and space, before the normals arise and return our city to chaos.

Bryant Park / Midtown

I was so amazed to see a cab from Springfield Massachusetts here, that I parked at the nearest fire hydrant and grabbed a few pictures.

Manhattan Skyline from the 59th Street Bridge (A.K.A. Queensboro Bridge)

Looking Downtown (or south) down the East River from the bridge.