A Clear Day in the City: Three Views, 2010

Photographs from a small camera in the big city.

I didn’t have a fancy rig. Just a digicam, some free time, and a city bright with sunlight.

These images weren’t planned, they just happened. That’s how it goes in New York, if you’re paying attention.

View of Manhattan skyline from Queens with a red boat speeding up the East River beneath a clear blue sky.

Dispatch

Queens, East River Park, looking west toward Manhattan

The skyline stood patient and still. Below it, motion: a red streak carved up the river, water crashing like applause. I didn’t chase the moment, it came to me. Sometimes the frame lines itself.

Coin-operated binocular viewer facing Manhattan’s skyline from Long Island City, with gantries in the foreground.

Vision

Gantries near Long Island City, just before noon

The city as seen by the city: coin-operated eyes bear witness to the skyscraping dreams of an American century. You want a better view? That’ll cost you a quarter.

Statue of Liberty seen from a harbor ferry, framed against a deep blue sky with a single dramatic cloud above her.

Photobomb

Statue of Liberty from the harbor ferry

What a cloud! And the sky, so blue, all blue. And there you are, yet again, intruding on my emptiness. We already know what you look like, do you have to be in every photo, every day? Gimme a break, Lady Liberty!

My photos aren’t perfect, but they worked out okay, thanks to a clear sky, a small camera and a little luck.