Across The River

Photos: © Stan B.

I was walking out of my mother's nursing home when I was hit with the hottest wind I ever experienced in my life, unnaturally hot, radioactively hot, and having grown up in NY, having experienced many a NYC summer, I realized- this is most definitely not normal! 

It was 98 degrees that day and the major reason I wasn't spending extended periods of time pounding sweltering midtown city streets in the little time I had. So, I continued my Queens bound journey to Long Island City- which I once termed "the armpit of NY." For decades it was the land forgotten by time, one of the last stops before Manhattan on the 7 IRT subway line. Not many people lived there and it wasn't anything even remotely resembling a city, the area immediately surrounding said subway stop was just a stagnant, malignant area of decay- like a hoarder's long forgotten and abandoned living space. The area adjoining it was a mixture of longtime residents living in small residential communities separated by areas of light industry, spreading from the aforementioned LIC to neighboring Astoria- as sleepy and domestically banal as neighboring Manhattan was forever busy and bustling. It was an area I frequented while living in the Lower East Side for it's relative solace and tranquility, streets where one could find themself the only person afoot, where even the occasional horizon line could be spotted.

That all began to change the end of the last century, when hyper gentrification began to rear its head in the NYC real estate market directly across the river. It began quietly in the eighties with PS1, a beloved art museum alternative- when someone once proclaimed: "Artists- the shock troops of gentrification!"* Anyway, by the turn of the century there were Manhattan sized skyscrapers (both business and luxury) springing up all around- a trend that continues to this day. Still, there are pockets of quiet and stillness not found beyond the riverbank, as well as the occasional tree for shade and solace, which is where I headed to and found the included photos (as well as the best bagels I ever did eat)...

*I suppose one could now substitute "techies" with artists.

Red Eyed

Photo: © Frank Fournier

Had the pleasure of stopping by the Leica Gallery in San Francisco this past Saturday just before closing and picking up Frank Fournier's joyous little book- Red Eye, a beautifully small 8x8in. book of visual poetry. Taken in 70's New York, they do contain a certain amount of nostalgia for this expat New Yorker growing up there at the time when the city was supposedly at its worst... Who knew? We were young. 

The book however does not just rely on nostalgia for its existence. The photos are pictorial paeans to a city so desperately alive, despite its decay. They're contemplative, but acutely representative of the details and rhythm of a city that's forever in motion, filled with the people that create it, regardless of how they feel or what it thinks of them. 

PS- The gallery is currently featuring the work of Patrick Corrigan and Hendrik Paul, and the former's print of a ladder against a tree is one of the most beautiful prints I have ever witnessed in my seventy years... can't stress enough- the jpeg depicted merely hints at the experience.

Photo: © Patrick Corrigan

Time Does Pass...

Photo: © Stan B.

Back if only for the moment, and say that because I will have to return shortly to NYC being that my mother was just placed into hospice care. Is what it is- and at 98, not exactly something unexpected... 

Had a coupla hours left for some 'street photography' on my final day there, only problem- it was 97 degrees and people were nowhere to be seen on NY's usually busy, bustling streets. One can just persevere the low nineties (with humidity, which is every bit as much a factor), but when we enter 95+ degree territory- you're talking actual... Pain! In fact, with the heat and humidity, I had no appetite whatsoever first coupla days, great for sweating and losing weight (especially after catching a glimpse of myself in a full view mirror- Yipes!), not so good for gorging on the favorite NY foods you long lust for. Had some great fried Pierogis with the most delicious chocolate egg cream ever at Veselkas, and some delicious potato pizza and gelato at the Chelsea Market. More to say later, but should when this space suddenly goes quiet again- you'll know why...

Even though I have a self imposed no cropping rule- the full frame version of the picture above was driving me bonkers! Loved the subject, and even though he was perfectly centered in the FF image, the open space on the right hand side made it seem completely unbalanced! Really drove me freakin'... bonkers! So, I cropped to a perfect 1:1 (even has a bit of the Diane Arbus Grenade Boy vibe); think it the best solution (short of subject repositioning via AI). I know, I know- standards really going downhill here! 

Anyway, still have a few days of vacation left before I return to the grind (or return to the Big City) and will use said time to edit my No Kings Day photos and the coupla things (literally) I got in NY. Oh, and one more thing... think I've called it a day on my annual pilgrimage to the Coney Island Mermaid Parade. An hour to get there, an hour to get back via subway for the honor of baking in the grueling sun for a few hours. Don't get me wrong, the event itself is always fun- but diminishing returns (photographically), and the fact that crowd control/police security gets more and more impossible every year (you have to walk a mile in either direction to avoid barricades just to cross the street to get to the subway entrance to go home) is starting to wear thin on these old bones...

NYC 6/24

1) Dance To The Radio!                     All Photos: © Stan Banos

I still love to travel, although I am no longer in love with all its painstaking trials and tribulations- making reservations (plane and hotel), learning nuances of local commuter transportation and basic language, etc. Once, it was all part of the adventure and excitement, as we get older, it can all get downgraded to a necessary nuisance. And no airplane ride should last more than three hours (particularly in coach), after that it's the Heebie Jeebie Express. And these days with climate change, vacation time risks either early summer flooding or staggering midsummer heat! 

2) Planning Your Future*

Didn't have to learn a new language in NYC last week but five straight days of ninety plus degrees was more than enough to feel my age, and then some. That said, it was great to be in a real city again with people all about doing what people in real cities go about doing- even if it's mostly being avid, compliant consumers. At least the joint wasn't deserted, as is downtown San Francisco, save for the wandering zombies.

*I imagined taking this exact photo when this building was first built (if memory serves in the mid nineties, before I left for San Francisco)- sometimes, guess ya just gotta wait!

3) Smiley Face

I was in NYC six and a half days, but half the time was spent attending to my mother who is now ninety six at a nursing home. I also visited an old 'friend,' The Vessel, and after some careful observation, noticed some kind of very thin netting covering part of one of its floors!? Hhmmm... Sure enough, it's supposedly scheduled to open anew (yet again) this 2024 with the new safety mesh encapsulating it (although no one seemed all that busy installing it midday, midweek when I was there).

4) Shades, Fishnet & Camo

How hot was it? I went to the annual Mermaid Parade at Coney Island and got there at eleven to photograph the participants, thinking it started at twelve. By twelve, I began to realize that it probably started at one, and by twelve thirty none of it mattered; after an hour and a half of baking in the sun, my brain was fried. Couldn't concentrate, compose, it all became one frenzied blur- I was done! At one point, I noticed something out of focus in the foreground of my viewfinder and couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was or what was going on- so I just went with it and used it as a... 'compositional element.' I never photograph participants in any parade or protest during the actual parade or march, only before or after- and no way I would survive until after! Ended up hopping the train back to the city before the parade even began, and best decision I ever made- only to later discover that the blurred "compositional element" I couldn't figure were my sunglasses held in hand.

5) Eyes Wide Open

Meanwhile, the Chelsea Market in the Meatpacking District remains quite the gastronomical delight with tantalizing cuisine from all corners of the world- not to mention a wicked coffee bar. Among the sampled: curried beef tacos w/saki, a jerk chicken burrito along with some splendidly delicious potato pizza (just one of many splendid varieties); one could be condemned there for life and never want for variety of food- did I mention the heaven sent gelato? That said, also managed to make it to Veselka's (one of my few remaining NY mainstays that hasn't closed) for some fried meat and potato pierogies (w/sautéed onions and sour cream) washed down with a yummy, cold chocolate egg cream! Mmmmm... 

6) Cig & Grand Central

Discovered Fotografiska which was featuring two of my favorite photographers at the insane cost of twenty four dollars- I got the Early Bird, Senior special for ten dollars, otherwise... no way, Jose. Sadly, the Maier exhibit was printed on very soft paper and really ruined the viewing experience, B&W is already a minimalist experience- deny it the power of its rich blacks and contrast, and you deny it its very existence. That's my story and I'm sticking to it; don't know who's responsible for the printing, but... Fortunately, the Gilden exhibit did not disappoint, from the (properly printed) B&W to the wall sized color portraits; his most recent work on bikers however, I found somewhat overcooked to the point where they practically bordered on illustrations- great images, just over the top editing in my opinion. 

It was amazing to once again see so many tourists (of which I now must include myself) in one place again, especially in such heat; welcome to the future- while it lasts...


Coney Island Mermaid Photos 6/22/24:

1) Fellow photog.

2) Human Starfish

3) Love And Love

4) Lobster Gal

5) The Creature Family

Stand Off

Photo: © Stan Banos

Fortunately, we've had our fair share of weather this winter- fortunate in light of the years of drought we've had. Doesn't make for a host of picture taking opportunities though, bad enough here on good days with hardly a soul ambling about the streets of San Francisco anymore. One weekend I was fortunate to view two really good flicks in a proper movie theater, but this past Presidents' Day weekend, there was nothing on the menu via entertainment and it rained every day. So I forced myself to do what I had been putting off for some time and started consolidating my digital files for posterity, which included burning them on gold DVD-R discs. Actually, I had done this as recently as 2 yrs ago, but I had gradually reedited so many of my files, I really needed to update since I've continued to improve my editing skills (now in color) with my state of the art Elements 9 Photoshop. Yeah, yeah- I know, I know... I really need to dispense with that toy editing software, man up, put on my big boy pants and buy Lightroom, Capture One or whatever- I get it!. And that's exactly what I plan to do in a year and two thirds when I retire... maybe (I just dread the fact that it'll then take me at least a year and a half to familiarize myself with the subtleties of the program, and a whole 'nother year and a half to 'master' it- and then go back and reedit that last three years work to finally begin to get it right... Lawdy, lawdy!

Anyway, one of the nice things that occurred was finding the discarded image above taken that very first Summer of Covid back in 2020 in NYC. I had dismissed it then as not very much. And while it may still remain and forever be just that, it now seems to so perfectly encapsulate and remind one of that peak period of time when the whole world seemed so very stand-offishly beyond the perimeter.

Celebrate!?!

Tourists posing and celebrating on 6/2023 at monument of death and avarice.    Photo: © Stan Banos

I must admit, I'm kinda obsessed with... The Vessel! The ultra gaudy, $200 million 'art' monument to suicide and man's narcissistic indifference that has been indefinitely closed since summer of 2021. Its ultimate outcome has yet to be decided (far as I know)- though I can't imagine it will get to forever flaunt its legacy of infamy center stage. When I last visited it's vacant, ever winding series of stairways in NYC this June, it seemed the ultimate monument to irony, the circular pathway to nowhere that can no longer be trod by anyone at any price. Said stairs are blocked, locked and secured; no one is getting inside or upside the Vessel proper- and still, no one knows what to do, other than wish they had never risen to the level it never achieved. 

Actually, my 'obsession' is a healthy diversion to everything else that is happening throughout the world- politically, socially, environmentally. In a word, it's... not good; people throughout the world seem more divided than ever, very much as we started the previous century- and we all know how well that worked out and unraveled. And yet, here we go all over again, many of us looking no less... to strongmen, and wannabe strongmen for answers, safety and security- as if we've learned nothing, nothing at all in the previous hundred years. All this occurring as we plunge full steam ahead into a 3 degree Celcius increase (kiss 1.5... Goodbye!) in temperature worldwide, continuing a record setting two decades of unprecedented, unabated, man made global warming culminating in the warmest year on record- 2023! And all the while, we continue to discuss all the things we know we should be doing- while continuing to burn ever increasing amounts of fossil fuels!

Did I mention that there'll be more plastic (by weight) than fish in the oceans by 2050? So yeah, best keep those higher level Vessel stairs closed up tight- and in the meantime...

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

NY Not So Confidential

Mermaid Parade 2023-  All Photos: © Stan Banos

I'm not claustrophobic, do not experience any fear of flying whatsoever- but any flight lasting over three hours is sheer, absolute fucking torture! I just get the heebie jeebies Big Time from then on- can't sleep, can't concentrate, can't sit still, can in no way be comfortable thereafter, period! And I'm not your average extra large American, nor am I a particularly envious person; keep your conspicuous items of consumption- you can have 'em all. Oh, but those First Class Mother Fucking airline seats- Jesus Fucking Lord!!! Wanna kill and maim everyone of those smug SOB's sprawled about oh so carefree and comfortable as I march back without recourse to my personal chamber of horrors... But I digress.

Mermaid Parade 2023- Coney Island

I must admit to having experienced some measure of culture shock returning to my NYC homeland this year! The Big Apple by all visible means seems to be thriving as ever: streets crowded with tourists and every measure of New Yorker hustling and bustling to make a dollar any which way they can, streets loud and alive with chatter, sirens and noises galore. In short, everything major cities used to look and sound like, so unlike the ghost town I inhabit today- storefronts vacant, downtown streets deserted, the homeless once ignored now the most dominant signs of remaining life. Having invested it's economy and very soul in Big Tech, San Francisco now suffers the consequences of entrusting its future to an entire generation whose allegiance is where they've always found it- right within the immediate vicinity of their laptop, the one true center of their reality. It's said one third (more like two thirds) of office space lies vacant downtown, restaurants and other supportive businesses are also shuttered and you're lucky to see a half dozen pedestrians ambling about on most downtown streets. Downtown San Francsico is nowhere near NYC in terms of acreage, but it once was mobbed nonetheless too...

Brooklyn 2023

East Village, 2023

So... it was good to see a living, thriving city again; although to be honest, it was also sheer madness! NY had become another entity as foreign as it was familiar when I decided to leave twenty some years ago, before I too devolved into some elderly NY street oddity. And although San Francisco is in its utter depths at present, I have no burning desire to permanently return to the land of my birth. I guess that's what's called a conundrum- not knowing where to spend my remaining "Golden Years" when I max out on SS at seventy- assuming I get there in the remaining two plus years... 

Long Island City 2023

Long Island City driveway

Long Island City driveway

Anyway, until that fateful date, we'll just have to keep wondering what will be torn down first and sold for scrap: The Vessel in NY- you can walk into its middle on the ground floor, but every set of stairs leading upward has been securely boarded up; or The Millenium Tower in San Francisco, which is still trying to right itself on the cheap, and getting all the more crooked with every passing day... 

Don't Sit On My Fucking Bike Bitch- Coney Island, 2023

Best graffiti seen in NYC- "Make Art, Get Rich- Ask Me How!"