Monday, January 22, 2007
New York City, Lower East Side
“Just me…and My Snowfamily”
The Brownie camera took on its old personality here. The lens had not been cleaned yet. So we have a gray, haunting image of life on the lower east side. This is winter in New York City, with both the snow family and their “adopted” little girl being frozen for a moment outside the subway stop - frozen both by the chill in the air and by the odd look of someone taking a picture with a big brown box.
New York City, Lower East Side
“Henry Street School Leaves a Light On”
We started shooting late on this day, and the night caught us. We took advantage of that to teach the students how to shoot a different way. We never use a flash – our Brownie doesn’t have one. But we did shoot in long exposures, holding the camera perfectly still and keeping a finger on the shutter release while counting…to 10, to 20, to 15, depending upon the subject and the light. Here, the school wakes up for a night on the lower east side. Other buildings joined in later.
Seattle, Washington and New York City
“Seattle Meets NYC for Coffee”
This double exposure was actually a sleight of hand planted by photographer Eric Henderson. “I had taught the kids in Seattle how to use the Brownie camera and later sent them a couple of cameras so they could shoot more, telling them, ‘They’re already loaded. All you have to do is shoot.’” What they didn’t know was that Eric had already taken the first shot with one of the cameras, thus setting the kids up for an “accidental” double exposure – the tracks of the 7 train lying in the middle of Seattle Washington. And, no, this was not a commercial. If you can understand Seattle as a coffee culture and Starbucks being everywhere, then you can understand how this would end up in the photo of a young person from Seattle. We’ll take that serendipity and run with it.
Lower East Side, New York City
“My Mom Lights Up The Place”
For this shot, the double exposure was no mistake, but rather the sharp execution of one of our photographers, Jonathan, taking a picture of a light of a stoop on Henry Street, and then turning, without winding to the next frame, and taking a picture of his mom who came at the end of the shoot to pick up Jonathan and stayed a bit to let us shoot a little longer. Thus, we have Jonathan’s mom emanating nothing but serenity and “momness” on that night on the lower east side.
New York City, Lower East Side
“An nyc Backyard View”
This is what a backyard can look like on the Lower East Side of New York City. The day we went to shoot with a few students from the Henry Street School, one of the first stops the students made was the waterfront, right around the corner from the Henry Street School. At first look, it is a darkly industrial scene, next to giant apartment buildings in a neighborhood that is nearing the exact intersection of grit and gentrification. But this dark scene was lit up by the kids’ conscious consideration of the fact that “this is my home.” There’s pride in that.
